Arcana: Lust (previously Protect Adachi)
by guillotineghosties
Summary: The romantic side of the Accomplice route from beginning to post game, featuring a silent female protagonist. The fate of the entire Investigation Team and the end of the protagonist's year in Inaba will change drastically when their leader carries a piece of Izanami and is drawn to the killer almost magnetically... Beta read by cassius! Cover image commissioned from morties
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I've already written in my head how aspects of P4 would be different if we'd been allowed a female protagonist, so why not share them? Some social links would be different-especially Adachi's if you chose to pursue a relationship with him. It's also important to note that the female protagonist is given a less form of Izanami as her Persona during her initial meeting with the gas station attendant. Also, the female protagonist is not a genderbend of Souji/Yu. Minako and Minato are not genderbends of each other, so neither are the they.

This fanfic was very experimental for me and I would appreciate feedback!

Also, trigger warning for heavy rape allusions.

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"So, you were with Yosuke earlier, right?"

Saki Konishi crossed her arms and let out a heavy sigh; her shift was over, and while normally the prince of Junes would be awaiting her outside on that stupid bike of his with his even more annoying smile, ready to say something stupid like, "wanna ride home together?" today had been different.  
There was a new girl in Inaba that was accompanying her admirer earlier, who Saki immediately spotted as opportunity to redirect Yosuke's attention.  
So she'd asked the protagonist earlier, when they'd just so happened to come across each other in the girls' bathroom (more like Saki had decided to stake her out—drinking all those refills of soda, of course she'd have to go at some point), if she'd mind stopped by later that night to talk.

The protagonist blinked and nodded her head.

"What do you think about him?" Saki was going to gauge how gentle she had to be with her words based on whether or not this other girl actually liked him. For all she knew, this poor girl could just be another victim to his sickening, puppy-like affection. Saki hated boys like that. They were too easy and too pushy at the same time.

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PLAYER CHOICE

He sure is annoying.  
He doesn't seem like a bad guy.  
[I like him.]  
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"You do?" Saki's jaw dropped for a moment. "I mean—" she cleared her throat and crossed her arms again, as she'd loosened up at the revelation. "He's alright. But, y'know, he's had a crush on me for a long time. I'm not interested, though, don't get the wrong idea. But he seems to really, really like you. In fact, I haven't seen him light up like that since, well, me. So, would you mind taking him off my hands?"

The protagonist nodded without a second thought, because Yosuke didn't seem so bad. Saki, however, rubbed her as being rather shallow and disinterested. If not for the fact that Yosuke's father was the general manager here at Junes, Saki would likely go out of her way to be rude to him.  
She was that kind of girl.

"Thanks so much!" Saki let out another sigh, this one lighter and relieved. "Oh, do you know your way home? Give me a few more minutes and I'll help you find your way back. Sorry to keep you here so long like this."

Of course, she wasn't sorry at all—kissing up to the new girl was a small price to pay to burn a tick from her side.

When Saki had clocked out, the two girls took their leave from the superstore and started down the isolated, dark, rural roads, the protagonist listening as Saki talked on about a boy that she _did_ like. "The complete opposite of Yosuke," she'd said.  
Hadn't she referred to him more affectionately earlier?

These routes were nothing like anything from the city, in the most pleasant ways. The constant illumination and light pollution back home made seeing the stars impossible, and the moon had seemed smaller back there, too. There was always noise there, cars running, people shouting. This was more reserved, and the silence was much welcomed.

Before the protagonist could ponder on the subject further, however, the quiet spring air was penetrated by the eerie creaking of…metal?  
Or was it maybe an old rusty wind chime?

The girl next to her froze in her tracks and screeched. "Is this a joke?!"

The protagonist quickly gazed up at what had been so petrifying, and for a moment she didn't think that it was real. A dead body was drooping from a large antenna—a woman's body—and was lifelessly swaying the gentle breeze.

"O-Oh my god," Saki was hyperventilating, scrambling into her purse for her phone. "We have to call the police! Your uncle is the chief, right?! Oh my god, I've never seen a dead person before…"

She continued until successfully dialed the police, but not before she had to move over to the ditch to vomit. Seeing this had been too much for her.

The next few hours were a haze of repeated questions, rubbing the erasers out of two cheap pencils on their statements. And plenty of Saki Konishi sobbing into her shoulder like she was her best friend.  
Maybe she'd misjudged Saki. The girl trusted her enough to openly break down.

The protagonist couldn't help but wonder why this wasn't as terrifying to herself.  
Maybe it was too many violent movies at a young age? She certainly had never been too heavily monitored when it came to television. Or perhaps she didn't seem so surprised because all of this gave her a vague feeling of déjà vu. Either way, it was better that at least one of them keep their head.

"Th-thanks for this," Saki had told her at the end of the long night, at around two in the morning when they'd been sat in the lobby to await further instruction. "It really means a lot to me. I'm sorry I'm so weak about this stuff. I don't have a strong stomach is all…"

She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her uniform. "All I've done is cry. Are you okay, though? You've been really quiet throughout this whole thing."

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PLAYER CHOICE

I'm kind of scared…  
[I'm more worried about you.]  
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"You're really nice. Like, _really_ nice…I see why Yosuke likes you so much." She gazed at the girl across from her thoughtfully, as if she had more to say. There had to be more to Saki Konishi than the protagonist had initially thought, and she felt a faint bond forming between them…

_ Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond...  
Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Empress Arcana._

The Saki Konish social link was established!

.Dojima approached the girls from his office, half a cup of lukewarm coffee in his hand. "Alright, I think that's all we're going to need from you two tonight. Of course, if I need any more information, I'll ask you." He looked to his niece, who gave him a reassuring nod.

The Konishi girl was an emotional wreck, as any girl her age would understandably be, but the protagonist had kept her head level and was much more thorough in her recalling the events. And it helped that they lived together.

"I'll have someone drive you two home. It's too dangerous to go out alone right now." He rubbed at his neck exhaustively, a habit that the protagonist would eventually pick up, as well. He looked back into the wing of doors. "Adachi!"

His assistant emerged from one, holding a folder with papers that looked as if they'd just been shoved in. The protagonist recognized her handwriting on one sheet. She'd spent two hours writing out a detailed account of what had happened (not that she had anything else to do) and didn't appreciate having her penmanship crammed so carelessly.

"Yes, Dojima-san?" He asked dutifully.

"Drive these two home. There's really nothing else for you to do here. I'm going to check up on a few things and then call it a night myself. Oh, but heat up my coffee first."

Adachi didn't say much on his way driving the two of you back; when he'd attempted to make conversation, casually asking, "so how is school going for you girls so far?" Saki quickly shut him down, stating, "none of your business".

Rude. But the protagonist recognized that now wasn't the time to be poking any fires. She was sure that her uncle's "slave" had been through enough with all the work tonight, and Saki was only in better spirits thanks to her companionship.

Dojima asked his niece to stay home from school the next day. The protagonist would have liked to have the morning to sleep, but him waking her up to tell her to not go to school at six in the morning proved ineffective.

She was already awake. Maybe if he hadn't have informed her that she was staying home, and just let her slept in…

"Oh, I have a favor to ask you."

Of course. The protagonist took a seat at the living room table with a bowl of cereal dust.  
Did the favor involve grocery shopping?  
She hoped so.

"The media won't leave the police station alone. They want to do an interview with the witnesses, but because Saki Konish is such a wreck, I was wondering if you'd be willing to just give a few words to the mic?" Dojima sat across from her and offered her a cup of freshly brewed coffee. "Here. I remembered how you liked it sweet."

Isn't this bribery?

"I'm really sorry to ask this of you. Especially because you just moved here. The news station already agreed to blur out your face and distort your voice, so anyone harassing you about the case won't be an issue."

The protagonist agreed nonetheless, though the bitter blackness hadn't been doused in enough sugar or creamer to have counted as payment.

She preferred to not to watch her own interview. Nanako recognized her right away, though, knocking at her door well after the news featuring her interview had aired, asking, "is that you on TV?"

All they'd done was ask her what she saw and how she felt about it—there wasn't much for her to tell. Or at least, after retelling the story at least a dozen times the night before, it didn't seem like a tale that should have captivated anyone. It served as a reminder of how fascinated with tragedy and grotesque the public could be.

She had no reason to lie to her younger cousin, and informed her that it had been at her father's request.

"I think that's really neat! You're brave for going on TV. I would be scared to; anyway, I'm going back to watch more before bed. Dad said he wouldn't be home until late." She sounded disheartened at that, but perked back up to give the older girl a small smile. "Night!"

Bidding Nanako goodnight, the protagonist shut her door once again and plopped onto her bed with the intent of not paying this anymore mind. The past twenty four hours had been filled with constant reminders that she found someone skewered atop a building like some kind of demented, discarded doll. She glanced over at the clock on her nightstand.  
Ten minutes until midnight.  
Did she really want to bother with the midnight channel again?  
It was just a rumor and something that Yosuke was probably using to flirt.

Her phone buzzed by her side.  
Speak of the devil.

She answered it to hear none other than Yosuke on the other end of the line.  
"Hey, it's almost midnight. You gonna tune in? Could be important."

He said nothing about the interview, which meant that either he was too dense to recognize her obvious outline on television, or he was simply being respectful of the subject and not bringing it up.  
Either way, she would rather talk about urban legends than murders.

The classmates stayed on the line until the midnight channel began its broadcast. A silhouette began forming in the snowy static of the television, a figure darkening in a deep gray that grew only slightly crisper when she unfocused her eyes. It looked familiar.

"Oh hey, if this is my soulmate, then…"

Was he joking? Her thoughts trailed away.

This was clearly her. Just as she'd been filmed during the interviews. She fought the temptation to reach her hand into the television again, just to assure herself that the last time hadn't been a dream. A warning bell rang in her head, though, and she briefly recalled fairy tales about dopplegangers and how they were a sign of imminent death.  
Was she going to be the next victim?

"Hey, are you still there?" Yosuke grabbed her attention; she'd actually almost forgotten that she was even using the phone.

She took a breath, reach forward, and powered off the television. Thankfully nothing reach out for her.

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PLAYER CHOICE

[That was me!]  
Did you recognize them?  
I'm going to die!  
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She explained to Yosuke that it was her on the television, and that she had been the girl the news interviewed. The images were eerily similar.

"No way!" Yosuke was clearly bewildered. "That was really you? So that's why you were absent today. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Saki-senpai since the other day, either…"  
He really _was_ that dense.

She returned to her bed, still eyeing the now blackened screen warily.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me!" Yosuke reassured you, as if that were the issue at hand. "But tomorrow after school, let's talk about this. I don't think the Midnight Channel is just some innocent little prank. Anyway, good night!"

And with that, Yosuke disconnected the call, leaving the protagonist alone for the rest of the night.

To her dismay, her uncle didn't allow her to skip another day of school.  
It wasn't that she disliked her new classmates (though the same couldn't be said about King Moron, who had hit Yosuke in the head with a piece of chalk for trying to pass her a note), but she was tired from not being able to rest.

To her surprise, a familiar face showed up during lunch break with news that she was needed at the police station.  
Adachi approached her in the classroom, appearing nervous as always.

"I need you to come to the station with me."

He had no problems pulling her out of school, and thankfully her peers assumed that this business had something to do with her uncle. The protagonist actually briefly worried about Dojima; maybe he only needed to have her rewrite her witness statement, if Adachi had crumpled up the papers too badly.

To her surprise, when they arrived at the police station, he led her into the interrogation room that was no longer used—she'd remembered her uncle mentioning that when she and Saki were there just two nights ago. There wasn't any surveillance equipment or even lights turn on, just an old wooden table in the center that had been scribbled with the graffiti of suspects over the years; the rest of the headquarters seemed to be abandoned.

"Your uncle and the other officers are actually at the crime scene right now, so it's just us here."  
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PLAYER CHOICE

Just us?  
[What's going on?]  
Why are we here?  
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"I'll get to that. But first" Adachi stepped forward and took her by the shoulders. She flinched at the unexpected contact, but stared up at him with curious, careful eyes. Something about him seemed less innocent now than when he was a fumbling klutz that her uncle was consistently sending on mule duties.

"What do you think of me?"

Adachi was acting strange compared to their prior meetings.

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I like you.]  
You're creeping me out, honestly.  
Please don't touch me…  
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"You-you do?" He seems a little perplexed at first, then smiles and nervously glances away. "I mean, of course you do. I'm so glad. I thought I would never find you."

Adachi sighs, seemingly relieved at some unseen burden that's been lifted from his shoulders. "But, you're a lot younger than I thought; that's okay, though. I actually kind of like it this way. We just can't tell anyone."

The protagonist isn't actually sure what he's talking about. Or why she just blurted out that she liked him. She'd only met this man a total of maybe four times, and one of their interactions had been too indulgent. They hadn't really even carried on a conversation prior to this.

She liked Adachi well enough. He didn't seem like a bad person. Maybe a little stupid, but not unpleasant. In fact, she actually had found his stumbling around to be kind of cute.

Before she can question this further, his grip on her shoulders tightens and his expression is suddenly much darker. "You're not going to tell anyone, right?"

She tried to take a step back, but he wasn't letting go. When she doesn't give a response—she can't even form words in her head, because this man is about twice her size, can easily overpower her physically, and the way he's grinning at her reminds her of the villains on television that are about to win. An anchor of dread set in her stomach, because she realized that this situation _isn't_ going to be like those Saturday morning programs in which someone swoops in to knock out the villain and help her beat the shit out of him. No, this was reality and he was about to have his way with her.

She only had a few seconds to try to say something—_anything_—to get her out of this.

She had to think very carefully about her next words.

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PLAYER CHOICE

We could get caught…  
Stop!  
[I won't tell anyone.]  
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"Of course you won't. Good girl." He sighed, seemingly almost relieved as he let her go. "We're going to be spending a lot of time together from now on. But first thing's first, because I've had to wait so long." He gripped her arm and pulled her over to the table, then forced her arms behind her back and slammed her torso into it. "Don't worry. You'll enjoy this."

She pierced her eyes shut, and everything went black.

. . .

She spent a very long time with Adachi.

When he was done with her, she sat atop the table with her arms wrapped around her chest while he readjusted his tie and regained his compusure. Not that it made him look any less disheveled when he returned to that playful, innocent act that was enough to fool everyone else. But she would remember this. Probably forever.

The room was suddenly much colder.

And yet this felt almost like pieces of a puzzle sliding together, albeit with a little more force than necessary. She wanted to hate him for what he'd just done, but what she felt was more of a curiosity. The way her body had reacted. Had she really been resisting? She didn't want to admit that she'd liked it—no, she didn't want to even have that debate with herself.

"Sorry that was so sudden." Adachi's voice didn't have a drop of toxicity to it now. "I promise, this'll work out just fine in the end. You're really cute, y'know." He smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the lips. She returned it awkwardly, neon dots blurring her vision. He pets her head. "I gotta get back to work now. Don't wait too long to get back to school."

And with that, he took his leave.

She didn't understand him in the least, but her intuition said that this had something to do with the midnight channel and her appearing there. Had he watched it, fully believing the rumors?

Regardless, she wanted to know more about him and had the feeling that she'd learn it, regardless.

She felt that a faint bond had formed between her and Adachi.

_ Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond...  
Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Lust Arcana._

The Tohru Adachi social link was established!

She stood up from the table, careful not to lose her balance and realized that, if she hurried, she could make it back to school before lunch was over.  
Yosuke might have said a few words of greeting to her, asked where she'd been, but the day was a blur of formalities until school was over and she went home to sleep on this situation.

The next day, her condition went from good to tired.

_To be continued?_


	2. Chapter 2

She'd been in Inaba for a little over a month now, and the protagonist had somewhat established a daily pattern for her life in the rural town. She'd made a few friends in from her class and clubs, and had grown particularly close to her new teammates. They'd made a habit out of meeting up at Junes before going inside of the television to investigate, although today they hadn't planned on fighting shadows.  
Exams were still plenty far away, but there was a history test coming up that had Yosuke and Chie in a state of unrest, so today was dedicated to studying. So no Junes today.

But that didn't stop Dojima from texting the protagonist during the middle of her cram session, asking her to go pick something up for dinner.  
She'd been wanting to take a break for the past hour, anyway.

Outside of the food court, where she's subconsciously start towards every time she went to Junes, was a familiar man idling about, looking a little apprehensive. What was Adachi doing? She might have been too far away to see, but it almost looked like he was trying to shuffle a deck of playing cards. When he noticed her approaching him, he quickly stuffed them into his pocket.

Their last meeting had been less than ideal, given that he'd pushed her over a table; but he appeared his usual, harmless self now.

"Oh, hey!" He waved over at her with a smile. "What are you doing here? Killing time? I'm sure this little town isn't exactly a comfortable transition for you. Nothing to do here and there's no fun like in the city. Plus everything closes so early… But nevermind that—how are you liking it so far?"

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PLAYER CHOICE

I'm always bored  
[What do you do for fun?]  
It's interesting so far

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"Me?" He laughed a little, averting his eyes. "Well, I don't exactly have time for fun, kid. But you do. So enjoy it while it lasts. You're really small and easy on the eyes, so you can do practically anything you want."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but hesitated; that was probably a habit he'd adapted into when her uncle would snap at him for idle comments or unneeded observations.

"Oh, about before…"

She could only tilt her head questioningly, although she knew the impending subject.

"I realize it'll never work out between us, so don't take it personally."

What? The question might as well had been written across her face in permanent marker.  
He didn't sound bitter, though, more nervous than anything.

"Y-You know, about the whole soul mate deal with the Midnight Channel?" He looked embarrassed. "I mean, you're much younger than me and your uncle would have my head. Besides, you might as well use your cute looks to lure in those young boys to spoil you. That's what all the girls your age do, y'know?"

_There_ was that slice of spite in his tone, reminiscent of his attitude the night after she'd been interviewed by the local news.

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PLAYER CHOICE

I don't trust them.  
[But I like you!]  
Aren't all boys the same?

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Adachi looked alarmed and quickly glanced around. "Hey, keep your voice down!" He whispered harshly. "Look, that's sweet, kid, really, but you don't really even know me. And I'm not exactly boyfriend or dating material. In fact, I—"

He stopped at hearing the automatic doors to Junes slide open. "Pretend I'm not here." He moved to face the corner of the room, away from the elderly woman that was making her way to the exit with a bag of vegetables.

The protagonist stood there for an uncomfortable few seconds.

Once the second set of doors had closed, Adachi turned back to face her.  
Was he avoiding that lady for some reason?

"Sorry, I gotta go back to work now," he declared hurriedly. "If I don't, Dojima-san will chew me out. Well, see ya!" He gave her parting gesture, smiling in that goofy, innocent manner of his as he took his leave.

_She felt a little closer to Adachi now…_

The protagonist simmered in her thoughts for a few minutes after he left. It wouldn't be unthinkable to come to the conclusion that Adachi had realized that the midnight channel wasn't actually a window to one's soul mate—she wondered if maybe, being a detective, he'd made the connection between the urban legend and the murders, too.  
If high school students such as herself and the rest of the investigation team could fit those pieces together, surely a trained protector of the law could as well.  
…Right?

She decided to not think about either subject anymore today. It'd been a collective, unspoken promise between her and her friends that on their days off from the murder case that they wouldn't stress about it. If they did, nothing else would ever get accomplished and grades would inevitably slip (more so for Yosuke). With a small sigh, she entered into Junes, instead choosing to occupy her mind with what would taste best for dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

She wasn't sure if it was from being cast into panic half a dozen times in the TV world in one night alone, or the fact that she'd misplaced her umbrella during the downpour of the previous day, but the protagonist was feeling fatigued and as if she were catching a cold. That didn't mean that she could skip school, though—not when she'd already taken to napping through lectures three times this week.  
So she endured what was a slow paced day in the classroom, at one point debating on swiping a couple of pieces of tape from the teacher's desk during lunch as to tape her eyes open.  
Funnily enough, when the school day was over, it felt as if Dia had been cast over her tired body.

There was still plenty to do before she could turn in early for the night and rest up. The fridge was empty again, save for rotting vegetables that might have already hosted a society of microorganisms by now, and the protagonist never liked for Nanako to be the only one cooking.  
The poor girl was plenty capable of preparing meals and had been doing so long before the protagonist's arrival, but it just didn't feel right to not give her a break.

Remembering how much the younger girl loved the sushi from Junes, and that she'd found a hefty sum of yen when she'd obliterated a shadow last night, dinner was already decided. Sure, she wouldn't be cooking tonight, but neither would her little cousin and that was the important factor.

Despite her fatigue, she was happy to see Adachi outside of the food court again, reading what appeared to be a small booklet of sorts that he shoved into his pocket when he noticed her approaching him.  
Stopping to chat for a few minutes wouldn't hurt anything.

"Hey, it's you again." He greeted her. "So what are you doing here? Picking up dinner for you and Nanako? I hear from your uncle that you've really improved in cooking over the past few weeks! I admire that in a girl. Even though Dojima-san got sick that day you sent him to work with a half fried omelet, you really made an effort to get better."  
Was he insulting her?

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PLAYER CHOICE

I didn't make him sick!  
[Want a demonstration?]  
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"You mean, come over to my house and cook for me?" Adachi's face visibly gained a pink tint for just a second—long enough for her to catch it before he shook his head. "I don't know about that! It would look kind of suspicious, don't you think? A cute little high school girl coming over to the house of twenty seven year old detective and playing housewife…you know how rumors in the sticks spread like wildfire."

When the protagonist said nothing in response, he glanced away and nervously rubbed at his neck. "I appreciate the offer. Really, I do—but I've been so busy with work lately, I probably won't have any free time for a while."

The elevator doors behind them audibly opened, and he froze upon hearing, "Tohru-chan!"  
The old lady from the other week approached him, stepping from the doors with a joyful expression; hadn't he been trying to avoid talking to this elderly woman last time? Before turning to face her, Adachi narrowed his eyes with childish frustration, as if he'd been busted for dodging her and now faced a lengthy lecture.

The woman sounded clearly ecstatic to see him, though, her normally tired face lighting up when she spoke about how she was so glad to see him again, but that he needed to eat more because he was looking "pale" and that she'd bring him some nimono.  
The protagonist spaced out from listening in on the conversation, instead looking over to a Gacha machine by the checkout lines.

She wondered what prizes were available now?  
They were just cheap little toys, but they cute and every now and then she might get something useful. If nothing else, Nanako might like them.  
The protagonist thought back to all of the Gacha stands back in the city. They were usually emptied out in just a few days, so grabbing promotional items became nothing less of a predatory hunt around the more active districts.

She was snapped out of her fond memories of Gacha grabbing when the old woman exited the store, and Adachi's attention had turned back to her.

"Her son apparently has the same name as me," He sighed. "So that's why she's latched onto me and won't leave me alone now. Her nimono is terrible, and every time she brings it to the station I have to eat it or else I'd be seen as rude." He was clearly frustrated with her. "It isn't like I can do anything about it, though. I'm supposed to be friendly to the public as a part of my job."

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PLAYER CHOICE

That's really kind of, her though!  
[You shouldn't have to be nice to her.]  
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Adachi let out a suppressed laugh, amused at the cold remark from the small girl before him. "You think so? That's kind of harsh coming from a face like yours. But you're brutally honest. I like that."

The protagonist couldn't help but smile.  
Adachi had a lot of pent up resentment, didn't he? But he looked happy at seeing her agree with his sentiments and at showing her a different side to him.

_She felt closer to Adachi now…  
_  
A certain ringing sounded between her ears and whispered…

_The Tohru Adachi Social Link has reached Level 2! _

He glanced out the window to assure that the senior wasn't waiting on him with a mass of gossip she'd forgotten. "I need to get back to work now, before Dojima-san starts looking for me. Well, see you."

She waved him off as he took his leave from Junes. Once he'd reach the parking lot, he fetched the booklet from his pocket that he'd been reading before their conversation. She couldn't make out the text from the distance now, but was that a white rabbit on the cover?

The protagonist received a painful reminder in the form of a wave of nausea that she wasn't feeling well, and returned to the task at hand of grabbing something for dinner.

She spent three thousand yen on the Gacha machines before she returned home.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Special thanks to cassius for beta reading this for me!~ Also, thank you to all of you who have continued supporting me in this endeavor! ;u; Your support means a ton to me! **

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She'd developed a mild case of tinnitus when she was adjusting sleeping in the silence of the countryside. The neighbors went to bed early, and there was little to no traffic once the night had set in for a couple of hours. It wasn't that she missed the barrage of car horns and the constant sea of chatter below her family's old apartment in the city, but she'd gotten used to being lulled to sleep by anything but quiet. The cicadas outside would help when they were buzzing with life on a clear night, but tonight their choir performance wasn't helping to ease her restlessness.

The protagonist hadn't made an attempt to do much this lazy Sunday, with the mindset that if she rested up today, tomorrow she and her friends could dive straight into the TV world after school the next day and go looking for Rise Kujikawa. June had been one hell of a month, and it was finally coming to a close. Kanji had joined the investigation team as a hard attacker and the school camping trip had been less than ideal. As much as she'd warmed up to Chie and Yukiko, sleeping in the same tent as them had been a test of patience. They talked too much about subjects she didn't particularly care about, and she'd found herself staring blankly into a girls' magazine to pacify them throughout the night.  
And she felt they were too harsh on the boys, especially Yosuke, who had gone out of his way to even buy them bathing suits.

"You're giving him too much credit. Don't be so easy on him when he's just being a perv!" Chie had insisted with horror when the protagonist happily accepted the gift of seemingly good will.  
By the time she'd returned from changing into it, half questioning the low cut of her top that pushed up her cleavage a little too much for comfort, poor Yosuke and Kanji had been shoved into the chilling cold river below just in time for a hung over King Moron to vomit his guts out upstream. Disgusting.

The protagonist shook her head now. June had been almost too much. A swirl of excitement mixed with a drop of dread coiled in her stomach as she sat up on her futon, wondering just what the rest of this year would hold in store for her.

Unable to get to sleep early, she decided to throw her uniform back on and go for a walk.  
She didn't have anywhere in particular in mind, but when she spotted Adachi in the shopping district on his way home from work; she had to at least say hi to him. It'd been a good few weeks since she'd last seen her uncle's underling, and for whatever reason she'd grown fond of his company in the Junes lobby.

"Oh, it's you." He sounded displeased. "It's really late, you know. It's dangerous for a girl like yourself to be out at this hour. Someone could just snatch you up."

Was Adachi worried about her?  
His concern for her was all the more reason to spend some time with him, and he didn't exactly tell her to go home.

"You must have a lot of free time."  
She accompanied him, browsing the local stores; they were all shutting down for the night, with one shop owner actually scurrying to flip their sign to "CLOSED" before the potential customers could walk in.

Adachi groaned in frustration. "I knew it. Everything closes here at around ten." He sighed. "I was going to pick up something to make for dinner…"  
He almost sounded like a broken man. Did he not keep food stocked up at his house? The protagonist briefly wondered. A food stash was something everyone needed for dire times like these.

Before he could formulate another plan for eating tonight, from a shop that was just closing up was the elderly woman from Junes. She looked delighted to see "Tohru-chan" as usual, and approached them with a friendly smile.

The protagonist awkwardly turned her head away from what she expected to another long, drawn out, one sided conversation between Adachi and this woman for the sake of him saving face in front of civilians.

"There you are! How was work, Tohru-chan?"

"Y-Yeah, I just got off, actually."

"Have you had dinner yet? You're young and need to keep yourself healthy! Would you like to come over to my house and eat? I'm making your favorite—nimono!"

"Today? Uh…I…" Adachi turned to the teenage girl next to him. "I can't today! I promised I'd take this girl out on a date. Not a real one, of course. Her boyfriend stood her up and I'm just trying to make her feel better." He feigned a disappointed look. "You know how high school boys are these days. Plus, she's my boss's niece, so I can't really refuse."

The protagonist's face heated up for a few seconds.

"Ah, I understand, then." The lady didn't sound too disappointed now. "You really are such a gentleman, Tohru-chan. Next time, then. Well, good night!" She quickly took her leave; it was probably around time for her actually be going to bed. Didn't all old people turn in early?

Adachi let out a relieved sigh once the woman had disappeared down the street. "She really sucks out my will to live. Could you imagine how awkward dinner with just me and her would be? And her nimono is terrible. Too dry and just gross. Anyway, sorry for using you like that. You really saved my ass here."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Let's really go on a date!]  
Lying to her is mean...  
Did I save it for keeps?  
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"Wow, you're persistent, kid, I'll give you that." Adachi laughed at her with a warm smile. "But don't you think we'd get some odd looks? Someone would see us and question it; you know how people talk about here. We couldn't risk it." He actually sounded let down now. "Besides, I don't even have time to be dating women my own age, yet alone someone with as much energy as you."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Then come over.]  
Are you broke or something?  
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He clearly wasn't opposed to that idea. "Well, Dojima-san did mention that your cooking is really delicious now…so you're seriously inviting me over? You don't think it'd be weird?"

Adachi stared at her with a certain look in his eyes, as if she were some sort of rare breed. He wasn't exactly deliberating; he seemed to have already made up his mind to accept her invitation. "I have to admit, I am kind of curious to see how you are in the kitchen. When I was in high school, I didn't really think about cooking too much."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[What did you think about?]  
What kind of student were you?  
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"My grades, mostly. I studied all the time and made sure that I didn't slip up. As long as I kept myself in high standing academically, my parents didn't care what else I did. Not that I exactly _did_ anything. I never even put any thought into having a girlfriend back then."  
Did he regret never having anyone? She wondered.  
"I guess I completely wasted any fun I could've had back then as a student. When you're an adult, it isn't as simple anymore. But you don't realize that until you're older."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Does it make you sad?]  
Don't you do anything for fun?  
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"A little," he admitted, giving her a tired smile. "But I graduated at the top of my class at the police academy, and lately things have been a little more fun. It's nice to know that I'm good at something, and I've always poured my blood into my work. This is actually kind of embarrassing…"

Adachi really was working on hard on solving the murder case, and she had to admire him for his dedication to protecting the people of Inaba. There were enough negative civilians here who were ungrateful to the police force, who thought that law enforcement wasn't doing its job; it even disheartened her uncle sometimes, who really valued the voice of the populace here. But Adachi seemed unfazed by it.

_The protagonist felt like she knew Adachi a bit more now…_

There was a certain warmth for him that hadn't been there before, and the moment she felt something click into her place…

_The Tohru Adachi Social Link has reach Level 3!_

"Oh, right, we were talking about dinner. I'll give you a rain check on that date and come over some other time, alright? I'll just stop by somewhere on the way home." He reach over and gave her head a gentle pat. He immediately withdrew his hand with a bashful blush. "S-sorry, don't know why I did that. Anyway, c'mon, I'll walk you home."

He suddenly grew a little frustrated. "Don't make a habit out of coming out this late at night, though. It really is dangerous…"

Adachi walked the protagonist back to the Dojima residence, all the while informing her that over the past few years, abductions and cases of kidnappings had steadily risen along with the successful criminal capture rates. Somehow, he told her, that didn't stop more cases every year. And of course, it was especially dangerous now with a murderer on the loose here.

He was being protective of her under the guise that Dojima would likely have a heart attack if anything were to happen to her or Nanako, but something told her it went further than trying to look out for the health of his boss.

Now that she thought about it, the protagonist wasn't so sure _why_ exactly she'd grown so fond of Adachi. After all, he hadn't exactly been the most gentle soul when he had her in the interrogation room the day after she'd appeared on the Midnight Channel. By all means, she should have become terrified of him. Abhorred him. She should have told her uncle exactly what he'd done to her.  
But she didn't. Because she wasn't exactly disgusted by it, and definitely not him.  
She didn't _want_ to tell anyone, because for whatever reason she'd grown to like Adachi and it suddenly occurred to her that she liked him as more than her uncle's coworker and drinking buddy.

She was more curious about him than what she'd originally wanted to admit.

An inner voice told her not to question this. To just go with it. That this was okay, and that even if Adachi had something to hide…

The protagonist shook her head when they'd arrived at the Dojima residence. Adachi told her goodnight, scolded her again for being out so late, and she made a bee line to her room once she made it into the door and kicked off her shoes. She flopped onto her futon with a sigh, curling up against her pillow.

The voice assuring about all of this was the same voice that drew her into the TV, and the one that had guided her in her dreams during her first night here in Inaba-when she'd fought some unseen force in her subconscious. It was the voice that she'd followed that provided her with an unspoken, promising assurance.

_I am thou... Thou art I…_

She could still hear those words if she listened closely enough. They didn't speak in words to her all the time; most of what this voice said to her was in the form of intuitive judgment and chills up her spine.

The protagonist let out an exhausted sigh and closed her eyes.

She knew now that the voice belonged to her Persona, her other self, and she wholeheartedly trusted Izanami to guide her.


	5. Chapter 5

She was seeking him out tonight, fully intent of fulfilling her promise of treating Adachi to a home cooked meal.  
The day had been uneventful enough, and so she'd been able to put her full concentration into the stew brewing at home.

When she found him in the shopping district this cool breezy night, luckily (for her), he looked famished.  
Dojima had been arriving home exceptional tired the past few days, so she suspected that Adachi's apparent fatigue was due to overworking or general chaos at the police station.

The protagonist had been putting a little more effort into her culinary practice as of lately. In fact, she'd only burnt and omelet twice this week alone.  
That wasn't too bad, was it?  
And they'd only burnt up because she'd gotten distracted helping Nanako find the remote for the TV.  
So it wasn't her fault. Not at all.

"Oh, hey," Adachi yawned into his hand. "Out late again? I thought I told you to be careful out at night like this…"

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PLAYER CHOICE  
[Invite Adachi to dinner]  
Do nothing  
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"Well, we did talk about it the other night. If you're so serious about it, then…" Adachi considered the invitation for a few seconds before shrugging. "Sure, why not? Dojima-san hasn't said anything about your cooking making him sick again, so it can't be too bad."

It wasn't too often that the protagonist and Nanako had anyone over for dinner when Dojima wasn't home.  
He was pulling his second double shift this week, and so any time home had been used to drink himself to unconsciousness on the couch, much to his daughter's disappointment.

The small girl looked moderately happy to have Adachi over, though, and as the stew simmered in the kitchen, the three of them sat around the living room table.

"Thanks again for having me over." He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He wasn't drooling, was he? "I don't think I've ever actually had a girl cook for me before."

Nanako gave him an alarmed, wide eyed stare, then turned to the protagonist. "Big Sis! I-Is Adachi your boyfriend?"

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PLAYER CHOICE  
[Maybe]  
He's too old  
This isn't a date  
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The tiny girl gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. "But he's so much older than you! And…and- "

"C'mon, don't tease your little sister," Adachi cut in, sugar coating his agitation nonchalantly. "You don't want to tarnish her view of you, do you?"

He turned to Nanako and smiled. "Your big sis just took pity on me and wanted to have me over for dinner is all. Your dad brags on her a lot at work, so I couldn't turn her down."

Nanako didn't look fully recovered. "Oh, okay. That makes sense." She looked a little uneasy, still, just at the thought of her role model dating someone like Adachi.  
Despite his usual cheery tone, Adachi appeared insulted at Nanako's automatic disproval.

_The air was filled with tension…_

The timer in the kitchen buzzed, and so the protagonist stood up to assure that the food was ready.  
She was a little worried at first, almost paranoid that the first time Adachi tested her culinary prowess would be an unlucky incident in which she added too much sauce or didn't let the ingredients simmer long enough, but he looked satisfied with the meal and didn't decline seconds.

To her relief, Nanako stopped pouting, and spoke excitedly about a book report she'd start on in a couple of weeks. She only stopped mid-sentence to sing along to the Junes commercial, then continued sharing her enthusiasm for school.  
After she'd finished eating, she neatly placed the bowl in the sink. "I'm going to bed now. Night."

When they could hear Nanako's door close upstairs, Adachi let out a frustrated sigh. "Well, that was awkward. But at least kids distract themselves easily enough." He looked away from the protagonist with a conflicted expression. "Dinner was great and all, but…maybe we shouldn't do this anymore without Dojima-san home. After all, we don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

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PLAYER CHOICE  
[Your place next time?]  
You might be right.  
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"Hey, I thought I told you-…" He scratched his head and turned back to her. "I can't really turn you down on that after tonight, can I? Alright, you can come over, but you can't tell anyone. I mean it. The last thing I need is this town thinking I'm some kind of predator."

_The protagonist felt closer to Adachi now…_

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach level 4!_

He couldn't hold back a small smile on the edge of his lips. "Well, I guess I should get home now. Thanks again."

Adachi saw himself out, collecting his shoes from the doorway and disappearing into the night to catch some sleep before work the next day.

The protagonist felt satisfied with tonight, and with the promise of actually going to Adachi's house next time.

She'd be busy for the next few days, having promised her friends that they would for sure rescue Rise this weekend. And helping her cope with her shadow would probably consume too much time, as well as explaining to her the nature of Personas, the TV world, shadows…there was so much to do.  
And the killer was still out there somewhere.

Sometimes, the uneasy feeling that the person responsible for the murders was keeping tabs on them would twist her stomach into a knot.  
That they were especially monitoring her, given that she'd been placed in the position of leadership and thus became the pillar of the investigation team.

She shook her head.

Now wasn't the time to worry about the case, because she'd just had dinner with Adachi and she'd managed to not scorch, under cook, or spill anything; now was the time for her to clean up the kitchen, turn off the lights, and go to bed to get some shut eye before school tomorrow. 


	6. Chapter 6

Rescuing Rise had been stressful, and for a good week straight afterwards the protagonist insisted that the investigation team take a break from the TV world. Fighting two massive shadows back to back would have knocked her into unconsciousness if not for Yosuke pushing her out of the way and taking that Hamaon attack.  
If she were to die, even temporarily, that would've been the end as no one else could grasp how to use a revival bead on her. They could resurrect anyone else, but when it came to her, it was as if the knowledge of item usage was sucked right out of them.  
They trusted her, and that responsibility weighed heavily on her shoulders every day.

Even though not all of her fellow Persona users were friends with each other, they held a collective goal: to bring the murder to justice, and discover the truth of the TV world's origins.  
The people in Inaba would remain endangered until they solved this case, and this town had become a home to her. And despite that she'd never had their company in the entirety of her life, she'd grown close to her uncle and cousin.  
Nanako had grown from shying away to her to calling her "Big Sis", and Dojima was appreciative for all of her help around the house and with his daughter, so much so that he'd began viewing her as more of a little sister than niece.

They were counting on her, too. The nights Dojima would arrive home with dark circles under his eyes served as a brutal reminder.  
He needed to spend more time with Nanako, and he could when this was all over.  
She just wanted it to be over.  
To enjoy the rest of her time here without the stress of a serial killer on the loose.

Even though Dojima had urged her to keep her nose out of the murders plaguing Inaba, he couldn't solve this on his own. Not without knowing of the TV world, and not without a Persona.  
She had to do this.  
_They_ had to do this.

This small vacation from their nightly shadow bashing gave Rise a chance to recover, and for Teddie to come to terms with himself.

It also gave her the opportunity to finally spend some more quality time with Adachi.  
By all means, it should have been less difficult to ease her mind around someone that wasn't a part of the investigation team (because somehow the subject would always sneak its way into their conversations), but around Adachi she was more inclined to think but not speak of the case.

It was a little better, at least, because she enjoyed his presence.

She found Adachi outside the Junes food court after school, as she'd expected, having fully prepared to cook for him tonight. He looked delighted to see her this time.

"Hey, there, so is tonight a good time?" He asked eagerly. "If you still wanna come over to my place, that is."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Spend time with Adachi]  
Do nothing  
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"I've got the day off, and my neighbors are actually at work now, so it'll be easy to sneak you in." Adachi laughed nervously, looking more enthused than usual.

Adachi's house was small, a one bedroom rental with a leaky roof signified by the randomly placed, half-filled buckets.  
It wasn't much of a place to look at her, but she was more focused on him than the piles of dishes sitting in both sides of the sink that she'd have to inevitably wash in order to proceed with tonight's plans.

"Sorry about those. I kept meaning to clean up around here, but work's had me really exhausted. You don't have to wash anything, though, I have disposable plates and forks."

He seemed embarrassed. "My place isn't that great, really. The landlord is supposed to get some repairs done, but he's kind of a dishonest asshole." He laughed wryly.

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PLAYER CHOICE

[It isn't so bad]  
This is a joke, right?  
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"You don't have to try to make me feel better. Just do your best." He motioned towards the table in the middle of the living room. It looked like an antique, and somehow didn't fit into the rest of the room at all. "I'm going to sit down and try to unwind. Today was stressful…"

Adachi didn't hesitate to make himself comfortable as the protagonist entered the kitchen and surveyed the refrigerator, freezer, and oven for possible dishes to make. She wasn't knowledgeable on an entire menu of entrees, but she was determined to scrounge up…_something_ from this mess.

Relying on her experiences from cooking for the Dojima household, the protagonist put forth her best effort to create a decent meal for Adachi…

Despite her worries that burgers might not have been the most exquisite meal, Adachi was happy that she'd managed to catch that the meat in the fridge would be going bad in a few days because that meant saving money.

"Sorry that I didn't have anything to go with these." His mood had lightened up compared to earlier. "And that you had to use plain bread, but—hey, did you really tear the crusts off? You really are a kid!" He laughed teasingly.

The protagonist blushed, then shoved the strings of bread into her mouth.

"Geez, you're serious about being a grownup, huh?" He looked away. "You…really shouldn't be. Don't do stuff like that for my sake. You try too hard to be an adult, but you're fine the way you are."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[You like me as a kid?]  
But you're an adult…  
I don't do it for you.  
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"It isn't really about you being a kid," he clarified quickly, red tinting his face. "I mean, you're a mature kid, and you're different than the other girls your age. But…" He paused, giving her a serious look. "There is one thing that bothers me. I know that despite what you tell Dojima-san, you and your friends are still poking your noses into the murder cases. And I know that you've got to be their leader, because, no offense to them, but you're…further ahead of them."

He sighed. "It makes me worry about you. Seriously. And not only me, but you're going to give Dojima-san a heart attack if you keep this up. And I've never seen Nanako-chan so happy, either. That poor child would be devastated if something were to happen to you. If the killer were to ever get their hands on you…"

Adachi's voice trailed off, and he looked deeply troubled at the prospect of the protagonist ever becoming victim to the culprit. "I can't lie. I'd be devastated. I really have grown to like you over these past few months. Please, don't put yourself in danger anymore."

He looked at ends with himself. "So…we'd have to keep it a secret, but if you promise to stop playing detective with your friends, then I'll be your boyfriend for as long as you're here or as long as you don't get bored of me."

She looked alarmed, eyes widening. His deduction skills were almost as intuitive and spot on as her uncle's…

He offered a small, timid smile with his offer.

_The protagonist had to think very carefully about this decision…_

_She and the Investigation Team had just rescued Rise from the TV world, so making such a critical promise now would mean not pursuing to save the next victim…_

_It could also result in the bonds with her teammates weakening when she takes no initiative._

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I promise.]  
I'm sorry, I can't.

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"You mean that?"

She nodded before self-doubt began to sink in, and before she could envision the faces of the investigation team.  
Of what they'd think of such a selfish decision.

"Then, I guess we're official!" He chimed, his excitement wiping away her dissonance.

"Well, I mean, not…until you're of age, but between us," he retracted. "A-And you can't tell your friends, either, okay?"

_The protagonist's relationship with Adachi became intimate!_

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach level 5!_

Content now, Adachi stood up and offered his hand to pull the protagonist to her feet. "It's getting late, so you should probably head home now. But don't worry, we'll do this again. Next time I'll have more for you to work with."

He let go of her hand with a sheepish smile. "The neighbors are home now, so I'll have to sneak you out the closet window. But be careful on your way home, okay?"


	7. Chapter 7

Over the next sixteen days, keeping her promise to Adachi proved to be more difficult than she originally anticipated.

Dodging the subject with her teammates had become a chore, avoiding them after school or brushing aside their requests with other convenient obligations.

Yosuke was most disappointed, but he insisted on not entering the TV without her. No one felt comfortable going in there without the leader.

It became a daily battle in and of itself.

"We miss you."

"We need to get stronger before the next Midnight Channel broadcast."

"Senpai, are you sick?"

"I really want to train while I have time off."

But as difficult as it was to sleep at night with the sad expressions of her friends' slideshowing under her eyelids, Adachi was pleased with her. Maybe he could tell because she looked more rested, or because Dojima had spoken about how much more help she'd been around the house, but Adachi knew that she'd stayed true to her word.

She hated feeling like such a slave to unspoken praise from him, but something about Adachi's relieved smile kept her shackled to his whim.

Resisting the call of the TV world and keeping Izanami at bay within her psyche became even more challenging when her homeroom teacher turned up dead next, and it was an unspoken agreement that the investigation team would _have_ to explore the shadows' realm.

When she didn't show up to Junes the next day and instead retreated to her room after school, Rise dialed her up.

"Senpai, we're all at Junes waiting for you. I know you haven't been feeling up for it, but don't you want to bring some justice to your teacher's death?"

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Go on without me.]  
I'm on my way.  
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There was a hesitant sigh on the other end. "Alright. Yosuke had already agreed to lead us if you didn't show…I'll talk to you later, alright?"

As it turned out, 's death was completely unrelated to the other murders. Teddie hadn't sensed him in the TV world, and he'd never appeared on the Midnight Channel.  
It was unrelated. Unrelated and irrelevant.

But the student's face that seeped through the static come midnight the next week was not.

She didn't recognize him, and neither did the rest of the investigation team. His uniform was from a different school, and he was a complete stranger. Even the slender boy that had been investigating on his own had confirmed as much.  
So it wasn't their problem, right?

They'd make it their problem. Of course.

She had been expecting for someone to pull her to the side to try to talk some sense into her, to try to pull her out of this quicksand of guilt she'd flung herself into.  
That person was Yosuke, who came to her with the saddest frown on his face. Like a beaten puppy.

They were counting on her for leadership, and to hold the group together. After all, aside from Chie and Yukiko, none of these people were friends. No way would this same party voluntarily work together towards any goal if it weren't a situation of life and death—or a situation of gaining vengeance against a common culprit that had tried to murder them.  
The protagonist had to be a pillar for them.

But pillars could only take so much weight, right?

"Partner, talk to me. Tell me why you're doing this, suddenly not wanting to investigate the TV world…not caring about the murders. No! I know you still care. You're not that kind of cold hearted person." Yosuke never looked away from her. He really believed in her.

She couldn't maintain eye contact with him.

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I'm scared.]  
We shouldn't be doing this.

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Yosuke looked as if he'd just witnessed a truck run over his bicycle. "You're scared?"

It was as if he'd never considered the possibility.

"Your face did appear on the TV months ago. Of course you're scared." And now he was ashamed of himself, having never given a thought to how she felt throughout the investigation—throughout exploring a world that had practically given her a warning letter of her own seemingly inevitable demise. "I'm sorry, partner. I never considered that possibility. It was selfish of me."

There was a long pause.

"Take all the time you need. I won't tell them the details if you don't want me to, but I'll explain to everyone that you're going to take a break from the investigation. We'll keep exploring the TV world, and I'll keep you updated on everything. I'm here for you, okay?"

He didn't wait for her to respond, quickly turning his back to her to head back to class, leaving her with a chest full of lead.

Adachi was happy to see her later that night, for once not scolding her for being out so late like a kid staying out past their bedtime.

"I've been so busy at work lately. This is actually my first night off in a while. Let's spend some time together."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Spend time with Adachi]  
Do nothing  
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"You want to come over again, I'm guessing? Lucky for you the neighbors are out and I have some leftover takeout from the other night, so you don't even have to cook!"

When they arrived at his place, however, his enthusiasm flipped to panic upon realizing that he'd left some magazines out in the living room that were apparently less than favorable. She didn't get as much as a glance at them before Adachi scrambled to hide them in his jacket. "Sorry, I forgot to put some stuff up. Work related stuff I can't let you see because it's top secret. Give me a second to put this up."

The protagonist nodded, pretending to not have the slightest clue as to what was really going on.  
It wasn't as if she felt personally offended at the thought of another masturbating.

Before she could give it too much thought, a pair of rounded glasses on the table caught her attention as she sat down to wait patiently for his return.

He noticed her staring at them when he returned from his bedroom just seconds later. "Oh, ignore those. Sometimes I have to wear glasses to read text if it's too small. But they look ridiculous."

Adachi looked flustered as he sat across from her. "It isn't like I need them all the time. I mostly just used them in high school and college because that was constant reading. But I know I don't have to tell you that."

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PLAYER CHOICE

Were you a nerd?  
Glasses aren't so bad.  
[Put them on his face]  
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Feeling particularly playful, the protagonist moved to her knees, grabbed the glasses, unfolded them, and placed them onto Adachi's face.

He didn't make any movement to try to stop her, instead just frowning and looking away with a mock scowling expression. He was trying to look angry. "See? They look terrible."

The protagonist shook her head, taking in the image before her.

Adachi was blushing. "Well, at least you don't think so." Despite sounding agitated, he grinned wryly. "Guess I don't have to be shy about wearing them around you, then. That's a relief."

"Anyway, I'm really proud of you. Far as I can tell, you've kept your promise to me and haven't been trying to stick your nose back in the case. You're a good girlfriend, you know that? Not enough girls keep their word these days and are too vulnerable to peer pressure."

The protagonist shyly glanced away and gave a small smile.

"I know it must be hard to let them down, but if your friends really care about you, they'll respect your decision to look after your own safety and follow your example. But hopefully the case will be wrapped up soon, and there won't be any need for kids to be putting themselves in danger."

Adachi removed his glasses and neatly placed them on the table with a laugh. "I'm not reading anything right now, so they're messing with my eyes. I'll heat up the takeout and we can watch TV together, alright?"

The next hour or so went by with a relaxed atmosphere, Adachi not finishing the box of spiced pork and instead falling asleep with his head on the table as an infomercial rolled on repeat. He was out cold.

The protagonist decided not to wake him, instead fetching a crumpled up blanket from the couch and casting it over his back. Although he was clearly exhausted, he looked peaceful. And harmless. She found it a nice enough setup to snap a photo of him on her phone for safekeeping.

_She felt herself grow closer to Adachi…_

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach level 6!_

She couldn't have anticipated the landslide of events that would occur after her friends ventured into the Void Quest on their own. It had been a tough fight for them without her, with Yosuke skipping school the next day with a cold and Chie battling the urge to cough throughout class (and losing).

They'd handed Mitsuo over to the police after defeating his shadow (which he'd continued to deny) and he continued to boast about being the killer.

The case should have been solved from there, so she didn't hesitate to accept Yosuke's invitation to the Junes food court the next day after they'd rested up.

"Too much doesn't add up," Rise frowned, absentmindedly stirring a straw in her soda. "I don't think he's the real killer."

Chie sighed. "I don't, either. 's body was beaten to death. There weren't any other marks like that on the other victims."

"Mitsuo always seemed desperate for attention." Yukiko knew that much, the guy having stalked her before. "And no way would I have let him close enough to me to shove me into a television."

"There isn't enough evidence to close the case," Yosuke concluded heavily. "But the only way we can know that for sure is whether or not more people appear on the Midnight Channel."

"Sensei," Teddie spoke up, directing the protagonist's attention to him. Being human had brightened his mood from being flattened after the battle with his shadow, but seeing his blond face frowning was somehow more heartbreaking than watching his bear suit pout. "I never sensed Mitsuo enter the TV world before. I really don't think it's him. Please come back and help us with this."

"We can't do this without you, senpai," Rise agreed. "If someone appears on the Midnight Channel again, come with us. We need you."

Silence fell over the table as they stared at their leader for guidance.

The investigation team would fall apart without her.

Even if they were capable of handling themselves, albeit poorly, as they'd already demonstrated, their collective mindset wouldn't allow them to continue without the protagonist to lead them.

She didn't have a choice now.

The guilt from betraying Adachi's wishes for her to play it safe and keep herself out of the investigation was already stabbing her in the stomach. She wasn't even going to try to tell herself that there wasn't going to be another Midnight Channel.

But he didn't know about the TV world. He didn't know that she was capable of taking care of herself there, that she had Izanami and a collection of other manifestations of her psyche to defend her and that she'd become handy with a machete to mince up shadows.

It wasn't as if the protagonist was really this helpless schoolgirl he thought her to be, so she wasn't in as much danger as he believed.

She thought about telling Adachi the truth—that the murder victims were thrown into a TV world with monsters and that she and her friends were given inhuman powers there to fight these things.

She wondered if he would believe her.


	8. Chapter 8

Try as she might to catch Adachi in the shopping district at night or at the Junes food court after school, the protagonist was unable to speak to him alone over the next couple of months and it seemed as if fate refused to give her the opportunity.

School started again, clubs and friends kept her busy, and she didn't want to start slacking off on helping upkeep the house.  
And some nights she helped Nanako with her homework.  
Life was busy, and the sweltering heat of summer seemed like such a small price to pay for idle peace and lazy days.

He was in a sour mood most of the time, too, with Mitsuo's case going nowhere and then the emergence of the slender boy as the detective prince, Naoto Shirogane. Adachi was visibly agitated by the idea of working with a child, a teenager nearly a decade his junior showing up the rest of the force, but Naoto proved to be of some mutual benefit to the investigation team and so the protagonist couldn't bring herself to dislike him.

Until he wound up the next victim of the Midnight Channel, and the protagonist was tied into rescuing their new companion. Her teammates were happy to have her back, at least. Yosuke, especially.  
They were fighting side by side again, their bonds strengthening her to shuffle through the appropriate Personas for each fight, and somehow it was easier than before.

She told herself that she'd tell Adachi about everything the first chance she got—about the TV world, that she and her friends were more than capable of taking care of themselves, and every clue they'd found so far.  
Maybe they could solve the case together.  
_If_ Adachi believed her.  
He would, right? Because she hadn't lied to him before, and they'd been honest with each other. Like any couple should be.

After defeating Naoto's shadow and having him join the investigation team (the protagonist assured him that, despite his biological features, he was still a boy if that was who he felt himself to be), they held a newfound confidence in having a detective join their exploration.  
Naoto had been investigating and studying murder cases for years, after all.  
He'd prove to be a valuable addition to the party.

Hanging out with her friends more now, finding time after school to go out to eat with them or pick up a cup of coffee, lightened her spirits.

Then there was the first letter that she'd received when she checked the mail on October the 20th. It was addressed to her specifically, a white envelope with no return address.  
She hadn't ordered anything, and her parents never wrote to her.  
Her spine turned to ice as she opened the envelope and read the message constructed of letters cut from newspapers and magazines.

"dont rescue anymore" was all it read. No grammar or punctuation.

The protagonist glanced around uneasily and stuffed the letter into her schoolbag, texting the investigation team as she entered through the door, calling a meeting to the food court.

Her first thought had been to go to Adachi with the letter, but it was unlikely that she'd be able to find him now, and even so, she didn't want to worry him further when he'd been so concerned for her already.

Just as she'd suspected, whoever the killer was, they knew about her. They knew she was the one in charge.  
To say the least, it scared her, but that fear ignited a fierce defiance in her to find the killer and show them a thing or two for threatening her.  
For making her afraid when she'd never been so fearful in her life.  
But she wouldn't show it. No, she couldn't break that confident demeanor again when her friends were counting on her now more than ever and she'd already let them down once.

But when another letter arrived a week or so afterwards, blatantly threatening her loved ones, she didn't have the chance to calm herself because Dojima caught glimpse of the paper and snatched it from her.

She was in so much trouble.

Everything that happened next happened all too quickly—being apprehended and brought to the station for questioning, panic surging through her chest, Nanako being kidnapped, and then Dojima being involved in a near fatal accident that very well could have killed him.

It was her fault, and she simmered in her guilt in the hospital hallway outside of Dojima's room.

If she had just left the case alone like Adachi had asked her to, followed his sound advice, none of this would have happened. And now Nanako could die because of her selfishness and because she didn't know how to say no to her friends and how to tell them that investigating serial murders wasn't their job, even with their Personas and exclusive knowledge of the TV world.

Those embers of determined defiance were extinguished now.

She just wanted them to be safe…

"You okay, kid?" Adachi exited her uncle's room, closing the door behind him, worry written all over his face. "Dojima-san is going to be alright. He's really tough, you know."

As much as she'd been trying to talk to Adachi one on one like this for months now, suddenly she didn't want to, seeing as how he had to know about her breaking her word to him.

"I told you to stay out of this." He shook his head and sighed, disappointment ringing in his voice. "And those friends of yours aren't the best influences in the world. But I know, there's no point in telling you to just go home with your tail between your legs now. Not when there isn't much else for you to lose. I just ask that you be careful, alright?"

_The protagonist remembered that she'd considered telling Adachi the truth about the TV world…_

_But revealing important information to him would be another betrayal of her friends and could hinder the case…_

_She had to think very carefully about her next choice…_

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PLAYER CHOICE

I'm sorry…  
Are you okay?  
[I have to tell you something]

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"Tell me something? Well, can it wait? I have my hands full right now, and this isn't exactly the best time to talk. But soon as I get the chance, I'll come by the house and talk to you. So for the next week or so, maybe you should stay at home during the afternoons so I don't miss you."

That would work better, she figured, given as how she could demonstrate that she was telling the truth in a more private setting, where no one else might see her sticking her hand into a television and it going through the screen.

"Hey, you are okay, right? You look like you're about to cry…" He sounded more concerned now, and she hadn't realized that her eyes were stinging and watery up until now.

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Cry in front of him]  
Hold back  
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She nodded and wipes her eyes on her sleeve, looking away, cheeks red from the fabric having just brushed against her face so abruptly.

"Hey, don't cry...this isn't your fault, you know. The sick son of a bitch doing this—he's the one to blame for this." He glanced behind his back to assure that no one was listening to them. No nurses were at the station, and the hallway was deserted.

"And…" He lowered his voice to a near whisper. "I'm not mad at you, either. So don't think that." He moved closer to her and pat her head, combing his fingers through her hair with a soft sigh. She hadn't been expecting that, not after she'd broken her promise.  
Regardless of the circumstances or her friends' influence, she still felt that she'd betrayed him.  
"It'll be okay, so don't cry."

_The protagonist has opened up to Adachi a little more…_

_Her relationship with Adachi has intensified._

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach level 7!_

He pulled away from her, a little too quickly, fearing someone might walk around the corner and catch him touching her. Even though it might be understandable given these circumstances, he wouldn't appreciate being eyed at like a predator, even for a second, seeing as how he viewed himself as anything but.

"Be safe on the way home, and I'll talk to you soon." He returned to Dojima's room to continue keeping watch over him throughout the night.

The protagonist told herself that she'd talk to her uncle herself and muster up the heart to see him once she'd set things right and rescued Nanako from the TV world.

But first she was going to tell Adachi the truth, and so for the next week she stayed home after school and took the time to plan out a counterattack on the culprit.


	9. Chapter 9

She had never been much for watching TV, and so the Dojima residence sunk into silence while the protagonist was alone.  
Turning on the TV would have just reminded her of Nanako when the inevitable Junes commercial played it's jingle across the station, too, and she was too antsy to go leap into the TV world and pry her out of Namatame's slimy hands.  
She was more than grateful for the support of the investigation team, too, given how they seemed just as devastated by the idea that the small girl could very well die.

They would call and text throughout the day to check up on her when she didn't show up at school over the next three days, and then visit afterwards before meeting again in the evening to voyage through the ironic, flowery Heaven a piece at a time.  
She didn't feel like school. Couldn't bring herself to get up and sit in a room all day alone with her thoughts and the inevitable barrage of questions from her peers.  
She wouldn't go in the afternoon, not immediately, because she was waiting to speak to Adachi the first chance he had to come talk to her.

Kanji wanted to make sure she was eating, and wouldn't have dared left that responsibility to the girls; they settled on helping her tidy up, although running a duster over the living room table hardly qualified as housework.  
Naoto never came over. He might have thought it too intrusive given that he considered Dojima a mentor of sorts.  
Yosuke mostly talked to her, and might have done the most good out of anyone.

"I just want to make sure you're alright, partner. Thanks for letting us come help you. We'll save Nanako-chan and make that son of a bitch pay, I swear it."  
When he spoke with so much enthusiasm and passion, it gave her a sting of confidence.  
They really could do this.

On the fourth day, Adachi finally made it over, much to the surprise of Teddie and Yosuke, who were gathered around the table with a board game. The protagonist appreciated their effort to distract her, but when she caught the detective scowling at them once she'd opened the door, she was having second thoughts.

"Oh, Adachi-san," Yosuke failed at trying hide the initial surprise in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I have to discuss something with your friend here," he replied hurriedly. "In private. It's about her uncle."

"Is everything alright?" Teddie gasped, standing in alarm.

"Yeah, it's fine, it's fine, but it's family business I'm supposed to deliver in confidentiality is all."

Yosuke crossed his arms, obviously frustrated, and glanced over at the protagonist and then back to Adachi. "Well, we don't want to intrude. Let's go, Ted." He stood up. "Just know we're still here for you if you need anything, partner."

She thanked them, and suddenly this felt like a betrayal of their trust because it was almost as if the TV world was their own domain. A place for her and her friends to spend time together unbeknownst to anyone else, because not only could no one else follow them, but outsiders wouldn't have understood.

Or most wouldn't.

Adachi might, she figured, mostly based on intuition mixed with the fact that she favored him so much.

Once Yosuke and Teddie had taken their leave, Adachi sighed tiredly. "Now that they're out of the way, what did you want to talk about? Look, I'm sorry we haven't gotten to spend time with you, but work has kept me busier than ever. You knew that from the beginning, though, that sometimes work takes over everything." He delivered the last sentence with an exasperated sigh.

He stood by the kitchen doorframe with expectant but tired eyes.

_The protagonist knew she didn't have too much time to talk to him…_

_But revealing the TV world to Adachi would risky, and not telling her friends about sharing that information with him would be nothing less than traitorous…_

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PLAYER CHOICE

…  
[Tell him]  
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_She took a breath and began to explain about the world on the other side of the TV and about the powers of Persona._

"So there's another dimension or something there? And you have these special powers there? Namatame is hiding in some alternate reality, is that it? I'm not following too well." He frowned.  
Oh, no, surely he didn't think this was just an act for attention.

She rose to her feet and nodded, deciding that showing him a demonstration would be the most effective way to earn his belief and sticking her arm into the television up to her elbow.

Adachi backed away. "What the hell?! That's got to be some kind of magic trick…"

She shook her head.  
His eyes widened at the sight of this, the girl's arm seamlessly absorbed by the portal.

"It's actually real…? That's so wild—and…kind of cool, actually." He let himself smile. "And you've been going there, this whole time?"

She withdrew herself from it, not exactly sure what was on the other side of the family television given that she'd never used it for entry before.

"Beating up monsters and these 'shadow' things—you're a lot stronger than I thought. All for the sake of justice and looking for the truth, huh? You've got spirit, but I like that about you; makes you more enjoyable to be around. I'm not sure why you told me this, though, because even if you showed it to anyone at the station, they'd never actually believe you, so sadly this doesn't do anything for the murder cases."

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PLAYER CHOICE

That's a shame, then.  
[You deserved to know.]  
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"Oh, right, I guess I do." Adachi visibly blushed. "I'm glad you trust me so much. This isn't an easy thing to tell anyone."

He laughed nervously, half not believing that she'd actually just told him her greatest secret. "I'm kind of flattered, actually. Anyway, if Namatame is in there, then that means you and your friends are going to look for him? That guy's obviously crazy, so even if a court wouldn't buy the TV story, I'm sure that psycho would get himself locked up. So if you can, try to bring him back alive."

He was less concerned about her safety now, thankfully, which meant she didn't have to worry much about making him worried now that he knew she could defend herself.

She was starting to wish that she'd told him sooner, and maybe she wouldn't have fallen behind in levelling herself up during her two week absence from the investigation.

Bring him back alive? Of course. They were wanting justice served, not to become murderers themselves. That would defeat the purpose of what she and her friends were trying to do. Besides, there was no gratification in sending someone to the afterlife, if there was one. Having a killer locked up behind bars, _wishing_ they were dead, having to live with the consequences of their crimes for the rest of their lives—_that_ was justice.

"Anyway, I should go now before more of your friends stop by to check on you. I have to take care of some more work down at the station, and then go check up on Dojima-san." He smiled. "He's doing fine, don't worry. I really wish I could help more with what's really going on, but I have faith in you that you'll bring Nanako-chan back safe and sound."

Adachi moved closer to her and looped his arms around her waist, pulling her into a warm hug.  
She closed her eyes, taking in the scent of cheap but not too strong cologne and finding comfort in the intimate, private contact.

_She shared a trusting moment with Adachi…_

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach level 8!_

He took a step back with a dreadful sigh. "Work awaits, but I'll see you later, alright? Keep me updated."

She saw him out the door, a newfound confidence surging through her with his support now.

As soon as he was gone, she sent out a text to her friends that they'd be meeting at the Junes food court in half an hour. They'd start their exploration earlier today, and from now on they'd enter into the TV world first thing after school. She'd start attending again and catch up on her homework after Namatame was captured.

She expected that in just two more days, they could locate Namatame in the television world, beat the living shit out of him, and then throw him at the real law enforcement and the case would be closed with Nanako safe.


	10. Chapter 10

It didn't matter how valiantly and quickly they'd rushed in save Nanako and defeat Namatame's shadow, who continued to spew out nonsense about "saving" people; despite making short work of him, Nanako never stabilized. At the end of the night, the doctor shook his head solemnly and informed the girl's father that she was dead.

Nanako was never less than angelic, adapting adult responsibilities and accepting when her father didn't have the time for her, but now she was going to heaven for real and all too soon.  
She was the last remnant of her mother, and her death prompted Dojima to try to execute Namatame himself.

The protagonist had been intent on staying outside Nanako's room up until that point, where Yosuke was letting her cry into his shoulder. She couldn't talk to Dojima yet or attempt to comfort him—if that was even possible—because there were no words for a man who had just lost everything.  
This was too much for her to handle. They had all been so determined for the girl to come out of this alive, more than anything, but for some sick man's amusement now she was dead.

They had to make sure that Dojima didn't hurt himself trying to kill Namatame, because he was still in no condition to fight, yet alone beat someone else to death.

Everything numbed out from there, until Yosuke was demanding that they push Namatame into the TV in his ward and end him once and for all. If it could even be called a ward. Naoto deduced that the staff at the hospital had given him a luxury suite.  
If they shoved him into the other side, his shadow would surely snuff out his life.

But something wasn't right. Something was missing. She wanted to believe that Namatame had killed Mayumi Yamano, given their relationship, and that he was responsible for Nanako's murder.  
There was also her own face appearing on the Midnight Channel, the memory of her static silhouette no longer sending chills up her spin but rather making her blood boil.  
He'd been targeting her, too, or the killer had been—up until this, she had never seen Namatame. He had never stalked her or attempted to throw her in that she could remember, unless his abilities ranged to memory manipulation. Which didn't seem likely.

But she wasn't the detective here; Naoto was.

So it was a relief when he confessed that he, too, felt something was missing.

Yosuke was still livid, having every right to be, and insistent on throwing Namatame in much to the protest of the girls.  
He could have, too. The man was doing nothing, on his knees, trembling, holding his head like the madman he had to be.

If not for Adachi entering into the room when he did, the situation would have only escalated more.

She should have felt badly, considering that she hadn't said anything to calm Kanji from grabbing Adachi by the collar of his shirt and demanding the location of Namatame's room, but everything continued to happen too quickly and it all seemed surreal.

"I'll have Namatame transferred out," Adachi decided. "But you kids can't tell anyone that you were in here, alright? But you…" He looked to the protagonist. "I need to talk to you alone, alright?"

He took her to a room that wasn't being used and shut the door, the rest of the investigation team having decided to wait in the hallway for her.  
They weren't going anywhere, and asking them to would have been unnecessarily stressful.

"So, are you okay? I know this is taking a toll on you, too…" He hugged her and sighed sadly. "But none of this is your fault, alright? You did everything you could."

It wasn't enough, though.

Nothing was enough to save her, and it felt like everything had been for nothing.  
This entire damned year of exhausting herself on the other side of the TV, making friends so that she could grow more powerful there, and shuffling through Personas had all been for nothing because she couldn't even save the girl that had become her little sister.

She would never hear Nanako welcome her home again, or sing the Junes jingle…

The protagonist tried to stay composed and wiped her eyes with her sleeves.  
She didn't like crying in front of people.

"I talked to some guys back at the station after you guys brought Namatame in and he tried to convince us of everything." Adachi sounded as if he was trying his best to sooth her, but didn't quite know how. "They don't think that it'll be possible to convict someone on the basis that they're throwing people into a magical TV world. But he's clearly off his rocker…Let's hope that he stays locked up in some form."

She nodded, consoling herself with the reasoning that as long as he's locked up, he won't be able to hurt anyone else, at least.  
But he deserved to die. Yosuke was right.

She couldn't be sure that she had made the right decision to tell him to calm down, to think that something was missing that she and her friends had been overlooking.

"You go home and get some rest. I'll take care of Dojima-san, alright?"

He gives her shoulders a reassuring squeeze when they pull away from each other, and she's glad that he's here, and that at least one adult believes her about the truth behind the murders.

To her surprise, the doctor is waiting for her with her friends.

"Young lady, I need to see you in Nanako-chan's room." He was scribbling something onto his clipboard, and the group followed him without so much as a word.

In her room, the tiny laid in the center of the bed that was much too big for her, with her eyes peacefully closed. But something was different now—she was hooked up to a machine and an IV. The nurse didn't look on the verge of tears anymore, either.

"I don't know how," the doctor said, wiping a tear from his eye. "But Nanako-chan is alive, just barely—she's fighting. She wants to live…"

The protagonist moved to her side to take a closer look at her, gently grasping her tiny hand and watching in disbelief as her body breathed with the slightest of movement.  
It didn't matter how, because Nanako was alive.  
She'd recover, no matter how slowly, and eventually she'd be back at home, giving her big sis a hug and asking to go to Junes and the protagonist promised herself that she'd take her every day.

After parting with her friends under the pact that they would take the night to clear their heads, when she finally drifted into sleep, Igor pulled her from her dreams and into the Velvet Room.

She didn't especially want to be here, but he never spoke to her without significance.

"You'll soon have to make a difficult decision," he told her. "And your choices thus far will weigh upon you at full force. Are you ready to take full responsibility for them?"

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I am.]  
Maybe not…  
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"Well, then, you are closer to solving the mystery laid before you. And you have companions who are following you through the dense fog."

She could hear them now—Yosuke, when he vowed to her to make the murderer pay for splaying her face across the Midnight Channel; Kanji, when he promised to follow her through thick and thin and protect her; Teddie, when he told her that she was the best and that he would marry her one day; And then Adachi, telling her that he was glad that she trusted him enough to confide in him the existence of the TV world.

The limo came to an abrupt halt at that, nearly knocking over the wine glasses set neatly on the table if not for Margaret calmly snatching them before they hit the floor.

Igor remained calm, as always.

"The state of this room reflects your heart. Perhaps right now would be a better time for contemplation, rather than action."

Teddie had gone back to his world, hopefully not for good, but his disappearance was enough to have Yosuke over at her door in the afternoon in a panic.

No one had any luck finding him, but they decided amongst themselves to continue with their investigation. Teddie would come back on his own time, they figured.  
Hopefully…

"Let's review the facts," Naoto decided, and reviewing them, they didn't add up to Namatame being the killer.

Knowing that Nanako was alive now, the protagonist could think more clearly on this.  
Namatame didn't appear to be lying, and she got the feeling that he wasn't.  
When Yukiko pointed out that the suspect had claimed that herself and the rest of the party were already saved, it didn't make sense that he viewed the afterlife as salvation.

And then there were the letters, which the protagonist no longer held the physical copies of.

But she couldn't have forgotten what they said, even if she tried, and both of those threats lacked a definitive factor. Neither were written in first person.

The only way to know for certain, however, that Namatame was in his right mind and that these tidbits of information couldn't be discredited by lunacy, was to visit him again and talk to him.

He answered their questions in the time that the guard over his room left to help with a disturbance in the lobby, and to her surprise, when asked who the first person was that he "saved", he looked to the protagonist.

"It would have been you, but I could never find you in town. I found out through the grapevine that you're the chief's niece, so I thought that you might be safe. I'm so glad that you were…so instead, the first person I saved…" He pointed weakly to Yukiko.

His voice was nothing less of sincere as he told the story of how he'd discovered the Midnight Channel, how the people behind the screen smiled, and how he truly believed himself to be the chosen salvation for the people who would otherwise be murdered once their face appeared in the static.

He didn't kill Mayumi Yamano.

He never intended to hurt anyone.

There was no doubt in the protagonist's mind about that now, and this innocent man could rot because of the real culprit.

She clenched her fists softly when they left Namatame's room upon the guard's return, and they agreed to search the town for clues tomorrow.  
The murder occurred six months prior. There wasn't a high chance that anyone would remember details from that long ago, but they had to try.

There weren't many people out in town with the fog as heavy and ominous as it was, and the team had split off to individually interview the few who were out and about.

She darted around between them, listening in, but not gaining any new information.

She hadn't been too hopeful about this venture to begin with, but this was their last resort to gain the clues to solve the case.

For no reason in particular, after not finding a soul to interview one on one, the protagonist decided to stop by the riverbank and sit with her thoughts. Listening to Naoto deduce this and that was helpful, but it didn't let her mind freely associate and tie anything together on its own.  
She realized that their methods were different, and Naoto's was much more reasonable. In fact, Naoto's ability to use logic and rationale was superior to her own—again, Naoto was the detective here.  
She wasn't. She was just somehow talented at reading others and able to lead when necessary.

She sat on the riverbank and sighed to herself, unable to move her thoughts from the letters.

It was in broad daylight when they were delivered. The killer wouldn't have been so careless as to simply stride up to the Dojima residence mailbox and slide the envelope into it, not when they'd been so tactful with everything else.

There weren't many people who could simply wander around the house without raising suspicion, and even the police would have looked out of place there—except for officer in particular, who know more about the Dojima family than anyone else.  
He knew Dojima's schedule, when Nanako left for school, the nights that Dojima would pass out drunk and likely sleep in the next day…

Adachi could have delivered the letter.

No; the killer had just gotten desperate. That had to had to be it.

Or, as she'd always suspected, the killer was keeping tabs on her since she'd appeared on the Midnight Channel.

And it wasn't like Adachi knew about—no, he must have…  
She recalled their first isolated encounter together, and how he seemed to think that she liked him despite having only spoken to him maybe once prior.  
He could have been watching the Midnight Channel under the same initial assumption that it would show him his soul mate, and when he'd seen her…  
That would have also explained why he'd gone from having his way with her in the interrogation room to getting flustered around her. He realized that the soul mate rumor was false.

But he'd continued to humor her, anyway, and she truly did like Adachi.

Sure, she'd developed social links with the investigation team and some of her classmates, but something about Adachi drew her to him in a way that was unlike the others.  
That was why she couldn't have told him she didn't like him back then.  
He was older, sure, but she found him attractive in an endearing way, and thought about him throughout day to day life more often than she wanted to admit.

He'd agreed to be her boyfriend, after all, even if it was in secrecy due to their circumstances for the time being.

If Adachi was the killer, she didn't know that she could turn him in or confront him about it.  
It would mean that, this entire time, he'd been lying to them. Giving them little hints to throw them off when they'd wander onto a crime scene was just a part of his act.  
When she told him about the TV world, maybe he was only acting surprised?  
He certainly accepted it without much question, though with her arm visibly halfway through the screen, no one could argue with that.  
Maybe his getting close to her had been a part of it, too?  
She was the one that kept approaching him, though.  
Or had he been intent on that after their first encounter?  
No, surely not.  
He looked so genuinely surprised that she had taken an interest in him…

There was no way that she could answer any of these questions herself, and she shook her head in frustration at her situation, now faced with a new dilemma: what should she do with this information?

_There was a strong possibly that Adachi could be culprit…_

Her first response was that she couldn't tell her friends.

They were blissfully unaware of her relationship with Adachi, and if she were wrong, he could get into trouble because of her.

Besides that, she couldn't live with herself if she'd sent Adachi to prison if he did do it.

This was wrong.

She knew that this was morally incorrect by all means, but Adachi…

The protagonist stood up, feeling more conflicted than ever, and headed back to her friends, dimly hoping that they'd found a clue that would point to someone other than Adachi.

In the beef bowl shop, the fact that Chie wasn't eating anything was the first red flag that, as expected, their search turned up nothing.

They reviewed the facts again, this time, Naoto pointing out that whoever delivered the letter to the Dojima residence had to be someone that blended in well and wouldn't rise suspicion.

Thankfully, Naoto didn't know the extent of Adachi's close association with the family, and so that possibility didn't occur to him.

She'd decided before returning to them that she couldn't' tell them, so when she joined Yosuke and Naoto outside of the shop for a final brainstorming, she knew this would possibly be the most difficult thing she had to keep from her friends.

This weighed more heavily on her than she'd expected.

The protagonist kept reminding herself of how Adachi had hugged her and comforted her throughout this entire ordeal with Nanako and Dojima.  
Adachi cared about her.  
Maybe even loved her.  
Maybe it wasn't him.

"Too bad the fog's so thick. The snow just gets lost it," Yosuke crossed his arms, gazing up at the sky

The three of them simmered in their thoughts, Yosuke and Naoto digging through their minds for even the tiniest scrap of detail they could have missed.

_This could be her last chance to consider turning Adachi in to her friends_

_To hide this information from them would be nothing less of betrayal_

_She had to consider her next decision carefully…_

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PLAYER CHOICE

Tell them  
[Protect Adachi]  
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_The murder of Mayumi Yamano would forever go unsolved, and Taro Namatame could be wrongfully convicted._

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PLAYER CHOICE

Tell them  
[Protect Adachi]  
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_The protagonist decided to keep the truth within her heart, hiding it from her friends._

Naoto sighed disappointedly. "It looks like our only option, then, is to be patient and continue our investigation. But regardless, the fact remains that Namatame has committed his crimes. And he has already been arrested…"

"So, no matter what we do, the case might be over now?" Yosuke gave the other a sad look.

Naoto nodded solemnly. "Yes, though the truth will be forever lost in darkness."

Yosuke crossed his arms, gazing away from them, as if ashamed of his self suddenly.  
He might have been, considering that he'd vowed to catch the killer and protect her from him.  
He'd never shaken the feeling that the culprit might attack her.

"Well for us, it's more like…it's lost in the fog."


	11. Chapter 11

The subsequent months glided by as they should have, with normal student life taking over and TV world exploration narrowing down to once a week and then not at all.  
The investigation team didn't exactly disperse, but the members spent less time with each other and began focusing on their individual lives.  
Now that she thought about it, the protagonist didn't exactly see them as a bunch that would voluntarily string themselves together.  
No, they'd all been united for a common cause, and without it, their collective bond started to fall apart.

She told herself didn't mind it so much, and that it was inevitable for them eventually separate anyway, right?  
Naoto would have to go back to the city to resume his other detective work, Rise would return to her idol life, and Teddie…Teddie was still missing.

They didn't talk about Teddie, though, because they saw no trace of him in those scarce trips into the TV, and they didn't talk about the case, either.

Nanako had asked about him not long after she'd woken up, girl thankfully on her way to recovery despite still being confined to the hospital, but the protagonist told her that Teddie had to go away for a while. He would be back, though.  
That was bullshit, of course, but she wasn't going to have anything else stressing out her little sister, and sometimes she'd have half a mind to go searching for the bear again.

That sense of adventure and wonder from the beginning of her year in Inaba, when she was the new kid making friends and rescuing new ones every time she slipped into the TV at Junes, was diminished now.  
It wasn't fun, if it ever had been, and the excitement of fighting off the shadows had faded to a dull formality.

To make matters all the more underwhelming, she didn't exactly get to spend much time with Adachi, either.  
Namatame's case had the police department in a constant frenzy, with her uncle and his assistant having to make frequent trips to the facility he'd been transferred to, and speaking with other officials that may or may not have actually believed the whole thing.  
Dojima stayed frustrated and unreachable, so she could never tell.

She'd gone back and forth with herself on confronting Adachi about the murders, about how everything seemed to fall into place based on the convenient little hints he'd dropped to the investigation team, and how he was the only person who could have dropped that letter into the mailbox without raising suspicion.  
She'd already known.  
There wasn't any confronting him.  
There was only going to be her making him aware that she knew, and that she didn't care about it anymore.  
She'd helped him get away with it.  
Maybe some part of her wanted credit for it, even.

By the time March rolled around, the day before she was to board a train back to the big city, realizing she wouldn't have another chance to talk to him in a long while finally gave her the motivation to stop by the station and ask for him.

"Oh, you're wanting to say goodbye to Adachi? He says you're a good kid, and that he wanted to see you off tomorrow, anyway." Dojima didn't even look up at her from his desk, where he was simultaneously reading over small print. "He isn't here, anyway. He said he had something personal to take care of, and he's never asked for an off day before so he was technically able to slack off today. But if you happen to run into him, make sure he's alright."

The protagonist assured him that she would, and took her leave from the station in a hurry.  
If Adachi wasn't there, and she hadn't seen him around the town (he wouldn't have called off just to lounge in Junes), then he could only be at home.  
He'd mentioned his nosy neighbors before, and that they were the primary reason for him being so reluctant to bring her over.  
She would be leaving tomorrow. So would it really matter now?

Deciding that it wouldn't, she made her way over to his house with every intention of having a row of excuses lined up for her being there.  
But Adachi wasn't home, either, although his door was unlocked.  
After she'd knocked on his door for a solid ten minutes, she decided to slip inside—only to make sure he as okay.

She called for him and glanced around the living room wearily. Nothing looked out of place.  
There was a half-eaten bowl of cheap ramen on the table next to a cup of untouched coffee, and his jacket had been discarded to the floor.  
But there was no response, and her eyes shifted to the powered off television.  
It wasn't the most expensive model, but it was large enough to fit a person inside of it.

As if to erase her doubts that Adachi would actually go into the TV world, the device flickered an eerie red and black striped pattern.

_It felt as if Adachi was waiting for her…_

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PLAYER CHOICE

[Visit Adachi]  
Leave  
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She'd been in this room before.  
It was the same seemingly haunted place that she'd stumbled into on her first venture here with Yosuke and Chie, with the noose, the torn magazine covers on the wall, and the unkempt bed.  
She realized: this was Adachi's room.  
This entire portion of the TV world was a more sinister duplicate of Inaba.

Her heart turned to lead and could have dropped into her stomach when the acute squeaking of a door opening echoed behind her.

She turned around to see Adachi standing there with that normal, oblivious look of his.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He sounded concerned. "It's rude to go into an adult's house without knocking. Geez, don't you kids have any respect?"

He approached her, smile contorting to a dark grin. "You really should have kept your promise to me, you know. I was fully content with playing boyfriend for you until you left. But it looks like you'll have to be the second person I kill, after all."

He shoved her onto the bed, an easy feat for someone twice her size and multitudes stronger in terms of physical strength. She propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him.  
"What a shame. You actually are cute. But I can't let some bitch in high school break my heart. Not when you'll just get bored of me and try to tell what I did—or wait, did you come here to try to convince me to turn myself in? You must be joking, right?"

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I'm on your side.]

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"And why is that? I just don't get you." He drew out his gun with a sigh. "You have all these boys your own age pursuing you, and yet you waste your time with me. You didn't exactly protest when I had my way with you back when we first met, either, and I know now that the whole soulmate business was just bullshit. I wanted to kill you then, so you know. Just to make sure no one found out, but especially that hardheaded idiot of an uncle of yours. But the TV in that interrogation room conveniently disappeared, so it was too risky, and you never said a word."

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PLAYER CHOICE

[I really do like you.]  
I'm not your enemy.

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"Shut up!" He snapped, pointing the gun to her point blank. "You wouldn't be saying that ten years ago, if you were my age. You don't know anything! You're just a brat with a crush on an older guy because your parents neglect you. That's all it is—you just have daddy issues. And I didn't plan on it, but you know too much now, and on my side or not, teenage girls can't be trusted to not slip up years down the road. So I have to kill you…"

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PLAYER CHOICE

You won't shoot.  
[You don't have to…]  
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"It's only because I like you so much that I have to do this. Because if you live, I won't have this image of you forever. Dedicated, untouched by anyone else..." He sounded genuinely sad, frowning down at her. "Not when you go back to the city and forget about me, or jump on the next older man that gives you attention. I can't have that. You know that means if you live, don't you?"  
He pushed the cold barrel to her forehead. "Are you sure you're ready for that level of commitment? Because you'll die, either way, if you ever step out on me."

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PLAYER CHOICE

I'm sure.  
[Is that a proposal?]  
It won't happen.  
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He grew quiet for a second, a grin stretching across his face. "I guess if you want to see it that way. Sure; we'll get married when you're older… But I mean it. I have ways of finding you, wherever you are, and this place is perfect for dumping bodies."

Adachi looked her over, almost suspiciously, and withdrew the weapon, sighing heavily as if he had just completed something tiring.  
She stood from the bed and watched him curiously, without a trace of fear or apprehension, and he turned away from her.

_The protagonist felt that she'd seen the true side of Adachi, and that their bond was at its strongest._

There was the sound of something shattering, and the inner voice that she'd been subjected to since her arrival in Inaba.

_Thou art I… And I am thou…_

_Thou hast established a genuine bond…_

_These genuine bonds…shall be your eyes to see the truth._

_We bestow upon thee the ability to create Magatsu Izanagi, the ultimate form of the Lust arcana…_

A new, chilling power coursed through her body.

_The Tohru Adachi social link has reach maximum level!_

_She has mastered the Jester social link!_

_Her ability to create Personas of the Lust arcana has been maximized!_

_She's forged a bond that cannot be broken._

"Well, then." His voice reverted back to that jovial tone she was so familiar with, and she snapped out of her almost trance-like state that overtook her each time a social link had reach its limit. "I'm glad that we talked about this before you left. I guess that maybe we really are meant to be together, and that's the 'truth' for us."

Adachi reach over and combed his fingers through her hair. "I'm really gonna miss you, and it's a shame that Namatame's case has kept me so busy the past few months. But I suppose we should enjoy what little time we have together now, right?"

He looped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, hand tightening in her hair and holding her in place as he kissed her. It was surprisingly soft, she thought, in contrast to the treatment she'd received from him the day in the interrogation room.

He really could kill her if he wanted to. She may have been fighting shadows for months and growing stronger, but the fact remained that she was still smaller than him, and he could easily lift her off her feet and send her hurling to her death. But he wouldn't, and she somehow knew it.

"I'll be gentle with you this time around."

_The protagonist spent a long time with Adachi before returning home to complete her preparations for the next day._


	12. Chapter 12

For all of its country quirks, the rural town of Yasoinaba had been the protagonist's home for the past year.  
And it had been a good home, too; it was quiet, and she'd never slept sounder on the nights when her mind wasn't filled with the murder case.  
Despite everything that had transpired over this hectic period of her life, she'd grown attached to it, her friends, and her newfound family in her uncle and little cousin—no, Nanako was her little sister now.

In fact, they'd become more of a family to her than her own parents, even if Dojima did stay tied to work constantly and Nanako was still confined to the hospital.  
She wished that she could've watched the girl make a full recovery firsthand. She was looking hopeful, and she would live, no doubt, but the protagonist wanted to be there every step of the way.

"It hardly seemed like a year." Dojima looked to her across the living room table as they shared their final morning coffee together.  
The protagonist absentmindedly stared down at the mug he'd given her, a violet, ceramic memento of her place here. She tried to not look over at her bags, stacked neatly beside her, because although this was inevitable, she didn't really want to leave. Not yet, anyway.

"Things won't be the same here without you, that's for sure. And I've been so busy lately making sure that Namatame is going to be locked up for the rest of his life. It isn't going anywhere because of the circumstances."  
He looked away from her, cycling through the case for perhaps the tenth time that day, trying to pick up the least trace of something he might have missed.

"Do you really think he's the one who did that to Nanako?"

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PLAYER CHOICE  
Maybe not…  
Of course.  
[Who else is there?]  
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"Yeah, you're right." He dismissed any other possibility. "You and your friends are the ones who brought him in, after all. Speaking of which, when you return to the city, you need to stay out of trouble."

He shook his head, glanced at his watch, and stood up. "Well, it's still a while before your train, but I'm running on fumes, so we gotta stop by the gas station first."  
She followed suit, grabbing her suitcase and her shoulder bag.  
"Someone must have hosed my tank because it was half full last night. Anyway, let's go."

The fog was particularly thick today, clouds of it nearly blinding anyone on the road. She wondered if Nanako was alright today; on days like this, when the fog was blanketing the town, she didn't do as well, and the protagonist began to view it as some kind of superstitious allegory.

She kept a careful watch for her uncle, playing passenger seat driver as to distract herself from the fact that, at this time tomorrow, she'd be walking to her old school through the crowded, bustling city streets.  
Of course, she'd be fine once that time became the here and now, it was just waiting on herself to adapt once more.

When they made it to the Moel gas station, she almost didn't recognize the attendant from before, who had greeted them the same day that she'd arrived in Inaba. They'd been chipper spirit who seemed all too eager to tell her about this little town.  
In fact, she hadn't paid them much mind until, after Dojima had exited the car mumbling something about getting a pack of smokes first, the attendant tapped on her window.  
The protagonist opened the door with a puzzled look.

"I need to speak with you, if you've got a minute."

She stepped out of the vehicle, closing the door behind her. Looking back, she found herself alone with this individual, as Dojima was nowhere in sight and must have already made his way into the store.

"You remember me, I see. There's no need to nervous."

The attendant stepped forward, hand their hip, and upon closer inspection the protagonist realized that this person was female in anatomy.

As if realizing that she'd picked up on this, their voice became softer.

"Actually. I wanted to thank you before you left. You don't recognize me in this form, but I am Izanami, the source of your Persona. When we first met, it seems that a piece of myself broke off and attached to you, merging with your own soul. Since then, I've observed your life here. As a part of myself, I feel that I at least owe you some explanation."

The protagonist could really see her now-_really_ see her, a floating being with long robes and skin too smooth to be human. Yet somehow, she felt familiar and radiated an air of peacefulness, because this _was_ Izanami. This was a part of herself.

"The TV world's existence is of my doing, because I previously sought to have this world devoured by shadows, humanity's own collective heart that yearns for self-destruction. I unlocked the potential of the power of Persona to you and one other person, who also happened to be an outsider here. Interestingly enough, a piece of Izanagi found its way inside of him."

"It's thanks to you, my child that my husband and I have reconciled as of late— through yourself and Tohru Adachi's relationship, we were able to repair ourselves. How mysterious fate works, isn't it?"

She smiled peacefully, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and perhaps it had.  
The protagonist couldn't begin to fathom the burdens placed upon gods.

"As such, I no longer wish to see this place in ruin, as it's become a sacred place to me because of you."

The goddess moved closer and placed a gentle hand to her head, blinding her with an overwhelming light.

_A certain powerful sensation overtook the protagonist's body!  
The protagonist's power has increased!  
The Personas Magatsu Izanami and Izanami-no-Okami can now be fused!_

The waves of the calming energy slowly subsided as Izanami removed her touch.

"Please, consider Inaba your domain now, both sides of it. This land is tied to you, so I ask that you take care of it, even from a distance.

"Now, there is a final matter I need to discuss with you."

With that, her voice dropped, and the air of celebration dissipated.

"Your friends."

The protagonist felt her heart drop.

"Although they treasure your companionship, their hearts continue to search for the truth that you have so carefully concealed from them. It's unavoidable that they will either spend the rest of their lives with the burden of having failed at catching the murderer they so wished to put to justice, or one day will uncover everything you've hidden with their own persistence."

She didn't want to think about either of those possibilities, her friends still having a cloud of their heads when she might see them again, or the looks on their faces at finding out that she'd betrayed their trust.  
It wasn't that she didn't care about them. No, she did—but she loved Adachi, and she couldn't let them throw him into prison for the rest of his life.  
Before she could continue her internal dissonance, Izanami continued.

"If you will it, I will wipe their memories of the past year's events—the TV world, their powers, and their journeys. Their Personas will remain, although dormant. But they will not forget you and what you mean to them. I cannot even erase that much from them, when you've made such an impact on their lives. Take all the time you need, my child, but tell me what you wish to do."

_This single decision could decide the fate of each member of the investigation team for the rest of their lives._

_This decision cannot be undone._

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PLAYER CHOICE  
Leave them be.  
Wipe their memories.  
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	13. Wipe their memories - Part 1

_A wise decision, my child. With this, our future is secured…_

The world went black for a brief few seconds, as if the protagonist had fallen and hit her head, but before she could consciously process it, she realized that she was now standing at the train station. Izanami was nowhere to be seen, having fulfilled her promise to her fledgling and placed her in the result of her choices.

She was holding her bags, standing just outside the car while Dojima and Adachi were making small talk by the bulletin board. Flipping her phone open, she realized that she had just a few more minutes until her train was scheduled to arrive. There were a few messages from her friends, wishing her well on her journey back home and apologizing for not being there to see her off.

Rubbing at her left temple and not wanting to think too much on her decisions, she closed the phone and put it away. They were still her friends, of course—they just didn't remember anything about the TV world, and thus each other if they weren't already acquainted prior to her attending Yasogami.

"What are you doing just standing over there in the rain?" Dojima called to her, motioning for her to join them under the roof of the waiting area.

It had started to drizzle, with thunder growling from the sky of asphalt colored clouds. She hadn't even noticed the drops hitting her face.

Adachi looked like he was having a good day for once, despite her leaving, and she wondered if he was overcompensating because he wasn't happy about her leaving.

"It was the strangest thing," he said once she'd joined them and set her bags down, voice mocking bewilderment. "All of your friends were here just a few minutes before you showed up. They were talking to each other, but then it's like they got into an argument or something. Your idol friend slapped the Junes kid, and they were all in some kind of massive disagreement…so they all left. Do they fight with each other that often?"

That comment earned him a light slap on the back of the head from his boss. "Adachi, don't be juvenile." He seemed sympathetic for the protagonist. "I'm sorry your friends didn't make it."

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I don't really need them  
[It happens]  
…

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"That's a mature way of looking at it; having so many friends, some of them are bound to have squabbles." Dojima retrieved a pack of smokes from his jacket pocket and positioned one to his lips with a heavy sigh. "Adachi. Lighter."

Adachi looked annoyed at being called out for mule duties in front of the protagonist, but he patiently drew out his lighter and flicked a flame to the cigarette. "So…what's the first thing you're gonna do when you get home?

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Sleep  
Study  
[Cry]

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"Well there isn't any need to cry," Adachi was a mix of touched and annoyed. "Inaba isn't going anywhere, and by the time you get to visit again, I'm sure things will have calmed down and gone back to being as boring as usual…"

_Beep, beep, biiii_

"Sorry, gotta take this." Dojima answered his phone almost immediately, and she assumed that it was the hospital given how he immediately moved out of earshot and towards where his car was parked.

Nanako had been doing better, so she inwardly crossed her fingers that it wasn't anything crucial. Before she could ponder on it too much or attempt to listen in, Adachi pet her head in the only act of physical affection he could slip through right now.

"I'll miss you, since you're okay for a brat. But you better not miss one phone call…"

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[You'll come find me?]  
I meant it.  
Don't worry!

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"I just might." He huffed. "I'm not going to let you forget, but I know that you know better. You're much smarter than I gave you credit for a year ago…I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to spend together next year. It's just until then that's going to be so boring…I can't promise to keep myself out of trouble."

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We've got forever  
Behave yourself  
[Without your accomplice?]

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"I may be without my accomplice, but your friends are without their leader, which is much more vital…but I'll try not to create more work for Dojima-san…" Adachi actually looked a little regretful at the idea of creating more stress for him.

It wasn't like he didn't actually care about him or Nanako, after all, Adachi was practically a part of their family, wasn't he? There was a mug with his name on it in the kitchen, at least. The protagonist didn't feel particularly worried about Adachi murdering anyone else or instigating any trouble. At least not until Nanako was better and back home.

Dojima had finished his call, and made his way back to them just as the rain picked up and the drizzle evolved into a downpour. "Nanako is okay. They just called to let me know that her teacher dropped some books off for her."

Of course, Dojima didn't look like Nanako was okay; he would be the only person now to visit the small and sick girl if the former Investigation Team had no fond memories of her. She remembered that Yosuke and Kanji at least had both promised her that they'd visit Nanako and try to heighten her spirits all they could after she left, but that was likely invalid now, given that their memories of traversing the TV world to save her had been taken.

Teddie had vowed to visit her every day, but there still wasn't a trace of him…

If his memories were erased, then had he reverted to being a shadow?

The thought sent a cold shiver down her spine. She hugged herself and stared to the ground, then quickly resolved that she wouldn't think about _that. _Instead, she looked to the man who had been worth all of this, and the knot in her stomach loosened.

With a colder gust blowing now, Adachi was obviously chilled but too proud to give any indication of such. His skin was probably still warm, and it would be nice to sneak in a hug or kiss before leaving Inaba, but Dojima wasn't going anywhere else and she could already hear the train's engine growing closer in the distance.

Feeling a little defeated, she hoisted up her bags. She was leaving Inaba on a bitter-sweet note.

The entire year had been one grand adventure for her, more exciting than she'd ever imagined, and she was leaving with having made new friends, a little sister, a fiancé and the blessings of an ancient goddess whose fragment had fused with a part of her own psyche. She was leaving with more than she'd came her with, and more than she had ever expected to gain from a little town in the middle of nowhere.

Not everything had gone perfectly, of course, and she wished that she could have truly convinced the team that Namatame was guilty. But this would have to do.

It wasn't like she could do it over.

"Don't look so down." Dojima pat her shoulder supportively, sensing his niece's distress. "We'll all miss you, too. I'll keep you updated on Nanako, and I'm sure she'd love to send you some pages she's colored from that coloring book she loves so much."

She smiled, suddenly embarrassed at being so pitiable, and thanked him once again for having her over for the year, then climbed the steps to the boarding dock as the train entered into the station with a loud and constant scream of the brakes.

The locomotive stopped, and the doors, perfectly aligned for her, opened with a mechanical hiss.

She turned to the two men and waved.

"See you, then." Adachi sounded awkward, unsure how to address her. "It was nice meeting you, and I hope to see you again next year!"

She nodded in agreement, thinking to herself that above all, she was glad to have met him above all, and then stepped onto the train without looking back.

As she gazed out at the foggy countryside from the window, forehead pressed to the glass, the city began sounding a little less dreadful. She did miss the fancy gachas and constant, twenty-four hour access to almost anything.

She didn't miss the constant noise, though, or how the sky was too polluted with light to see the stars—Inaba had spoiled her with quiet nights full of cicadas, lightning bugs, and bright starry nights.

She'd miss Inaba. A lot. And she already wished that she could return, but it would just be a year, right?  
Living in the city her entire life, surely she could manage just a fraction more.

With a heavy sigh, the protagonist retrieved her phone from her bag and browsed through her gallery of photos from Inaba, entering her password for one particular file—the picture she'd taken of Adachi resting on his table, exhausted from work the night she cooked for him so many months back.

No sooner had she started at it long enough to let her eyes well up (there weren't any other passengers in her cabin, so it'd be okay to cry now, right?), a text notification overtook her screen.

From: Adachi-san  
Message: Have a safe trip back.

She wiped her eyes in sudden embarrassment and text him back with a genuine smile on her face.

_Thank you 3_


	14. Wipe their memories - part 2

It was a tough year after she'd left Inaba, particularly because the city kept her awake at night and the academic requirements at her old school came back to bite her with a vengeance.  
Yasogami had been so easy and lax in comparison to the higher rated schools she'd been used to, of course at the cost of prestige.  
City schools always looked better on college applications.  
All of her teachers at Yasogami had really believed that she was bright and talented, enough to never study and always get perfect grades, but the truth was that she'd learned their curriculum the year prior.

Last year had been a cakewalk for her as far as school was concerned, but upon returning she'd found that she was now behind her peers, so she actually had to study and put some effort into learning and passing exams. She still wasn't sure where she'd apply for university, but wherever she decided, she'd need the highest marks she could earn. Her parents were still never around, but she didn't want to live with them any longer than she had to.

The protagonist didn't have time for friends now, and in fact she'd never made much of an effort to socialize before. She remembered sometimes that the Investigation Team had always assumed that because she was so pretty and smart, she was popular back home, and she had an entire harem of boys and girls waiting for her return. It was ironic of them to think that she didn't just blend into the city like everyone else.  
It couldn't have been further from the truth, but she'd never give a straight answer when they asked her about her life here.  
They might have thought that she wasn't so great and fit to be their leader if they knew the truth.

Yosuke and Chie had been the two to approach her, anyway, and initiate conversation and hold such interest in the new girl. They'd already been elevating her, and she simply went with It, discovering that she liked being thought of so fondly, despite all of the responsibilities and stress that came with her role as the head of the investigation team.  
All she had to do was read people and say the right thing, what they most wanted to hear with just enough truth that it didn't sting and in a voice soft or stern enough to deliver the message appropriately.  
She wondered if this came with her Wild Card ability, and if Wild Cards were dangerous.

Going to Junes after school with her friends, grabbing lunch and talking about the murder case and speculating about the TV worlds mysteries was over now, so she didn't like thinking about it, and preferred to avoid the subject with herself.

Only she remembered their trials in the TV world, their involvement in the murder case, and how their little group had become so tight knit for a cause.  
It was best that they not remember what they'd learned, even if that meant the lessons of their shadow confrontations being invalidated. They'd grow as people some other way, or maybe not.  
It wasn't her problem, anymore.  
None of them ever called her or text after she'd left Inaba, and they hadn't shown up to see her off.

But severing her bonds with them was a small price to pay to protect _him_.

Maybe it was Izanami influencing her still, considering that a part of her would always be lodged somewhere in the protagonist's soul, but when she and Adachi spoke over the phone or exchanged text messages, the isolated world she'd let herself fall into was a little less cruel.

As promised, she never missed his calls and always answered her texts soon as she could. The few times she'd be stuck in the subway with a low battery, she'd always send him a message telling him that her phone was dying. Just in case.  
He kept her updated on Nanako, too, and with Dojima's health. Usually when he was complaining about Dojima working him like a mule, everything was alright, and Nanako's recovery was steady.

She never really felt like he did keep tabs on her or that he was tapping into her phone line. Or maybe he did, and he realized that aside from occasionally calling her parents or checking up with the Dojimas she didn't talk to anyone.

Unsurprisingly, during her first month back, the calls from Adachi were more than frequent frequent, and he'd often chastise her about her choices, despite the fact that they benefitted him more than anything.  
She'd sit back in her chair, click her pen with a bored look on her face, and humor him as he scolded her for being a "bad kid" and "an accomplice to murder".

Despite his words and all the time she'd spent reflecting on her decision, she couldn't bring herself to feel regretful.  
She didn't owe the world justice, and unless humanity was overtaken with a hivemind, people were always going to kill each other and really, "justice" was just a market in the modern world.

At some point in her life, she realized that one has to look after themselves and the people that they deem worthy of loyalty.  
Adachi did something wrong.  
Someone died because of him.  
Someone else was getting the blame for it.  
So what?  
Was every wrongdoing in the world her problem?  
She liked Adachi, loved him even, and the confirmation from Izanami was enough to convince her that they really were soulmates or at least compatible enough to stick together for the rest of their lives.  
Choosing Adachi was the only logical choice.  
He'd want more excitement in the future, probably, and when that time came she'd probably be there.

The next year, when she boarded the train to spend Golden Week with the Dojimas, she couldn't have been happier to visit Inaba again and see Adachi.  
Adachi had been the first to learn that her uncle wanted her to come visit during the holiday, texting her that she'd better accept (or else), and the news couldn't have come at a better time between filling out university applications.  
Not that she had anywhere particular in mind. She figured it'd be best to see how many accepted her, and then choose from there.

Seeing the cityscape disappear from the train window was somehow relieving, enough for her to sleep the entire journey to Inaba. When she opened her eyes, she could see the countryside again, a blanket of fog overtaking it with an overcast sky.  
Adachi never mentioned the weather to her, and she never asked about it, but if the fog had never truly lifted she would be content with that.

To her delight, Dojima, Nanako, and Adachi were waiting for her at the station, and she shyly waved at them as she unboarded the train and rubbed her eyes.

Nanako was the first to speak to her, smiling in absolute adoration as she ran to her and hugged her waist. "Big Sis! I've missed you! Did you get the drawings I sent you?"

She pet the girls head and told her that she missed her, too, and that the crayon colored pages from her animal book were on her fridge; it was a relief to see Nanako in such bright spirits. In fact, it looked as if she'd completely recovered from whatever mysterious ailment had infect her tiny body last year.  
Feeling the strength in her embrace was reassuring.

Dojima approached her, Adachi tailing behind him, and pat her shoulder heartily. "You look exactly the same as last year. It's good to know some things don't change, although you look a little tired."

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I'm happy to be back!  
[I've missed everyone.]

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At that, Dojima frowned. "Listen, I actually tried to get your friends together to come greet you, but right now apparently some of them aren't on speaking terms, other have moved…I'm sorry your friends aren't here."

Adachi shrugged and smiled. "Well, that's what happens, sir, high school friends do that. I'm sure she's mature enough to have realized that by now."

"Well, that doesn't make it right. It's hard for kids to grow up and realize that people separate…"

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PLAYER CHOICE

I don't really care.  
[What happened to them?]  
…

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Dojima took a breath and drew out a carton of cigarettes from his pocket, placing one in his mouth, lighting it, and taking a hit before continuing.  
This had apparently been a stressful, all day affair for him, and she almost felt guilty that he'd even went through the trouble.

"Well, for starters, your friends, Chie Satanoka and Yukiko Amagi, aren't speaking to each other right now. They had some kind of fight apparently, and the idea of them even being in the same room wasn't doable.

"Hanamura said that he was too busy with work, and didn't seem too happy at mentioning your name.

"Kanji Tatsumi…his mother claimed he wasn't there at the shop. It could've been he thought he was in trouble or something, since he did get into a fight a few weeks ago, but I gave her the message that he could come see you today and he never showed up.

"Your model friend left months ago, according to the tofu shop.

"Naoto Shirogane is actually not welcome at the station anymore. He piped an attitude about Namatame's case, and tried to claim that he couldn't have been the killer due to this 'evidence' he fabricated out of nowhere. He actually tried to claim that Adachi of all people was the perpetrator."

At that Adachi crossed his arms and shook his head. "I'd never been more offended, Dojima-san. I told you that kid was trouble…"

"Well, he won't be bothering us anymore. He needs to pull his head out of his ass and realize that real life isn't a detective novel."

She noticed a gleam in Adachi's eyes, that he was so pleased with having successfully pooled the wool over Doima's eyes. She gave him a small smile.

Nanako was clearly upset by all of this talk of decaying friendships, and hurried tugged at the protagonist's sleeve. "Big Sis, you'll never abandon me, right? Because we're family…"

Dojima answered for her. "Nanako, of course not. No one is going anywhere, so don't you worry."

"Big Sis is my big sis forever, then!"

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That's right!  
[I'll always look after you.]  
…

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"One day, Big Sis, I'll protect you, too!" She nodded resolutely, joyfully clenching her fists.

Dojima looked relieved to see Nanako so happy; the protagonist wondered if he'd been spending more time with her, as he'd resolved to, now that there wasn't a killer on the loose. "Anyway, there's no point in just standing around here. I've got a watermelon to celebrate your return, so let's get you home!"

Home.

Right. This was home, and she felt a definite excitement at knowing that she'd be here for an entire week. This would be a week of revisiting the town, the riverbank, the TV world, and spending time with Adachi and the only family she felt any connection to.

It'd be a good week.

Her room was exactly how she'd left it, complete with her shelf of prize figures, her desk, and her bed, save for a few new layers of dust.  
She opened her window to let some fresh air in. It'd probably rain again soon, and it was a relief to know that at least the weather of Inaba hadn't changed.  
Tonight, she'd probably sleep better than she had in months. The silence might have been her favorite thing about the countryside.  
She rested her elbows on the windowsill and gazed out at the storm clouds.

There was a knock at her unopened door, and she turned to see Adachi standing there, looking rather smug as he entered her room.

"Oh, hey. Dojima-san wanted me to come get you. He and Nanako-chan are outside smashing the melon. They're really happy to have you back. But before we join them, I wanted to talk to you real quick."

She tilted her head.

"So. You miss me?"

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Of course!  
[Kiss him]  
…

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She stepped toward him, lightly grabbed his arm, and stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the lips.  
Adachi looked a little surprised at her being so direct, but returned the affection for a few moments, then gently nudged her away with a pleased smirk.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. But first thing's first. Listen, I'm not supposed to say anything, but…Dojima-san remembers how you were so keen on helping with the murder case last year, and with Shirogane gone, we could use an intern. He thinks that you might be interested in entering into the field, with you graduating soon and all. So he's going to offer the position to you for the summer. He's really been missing your help around the house and with Nanako, so he'd like for you to move back in with him, if only for a few months.

"And even though I'm glad to not have as much work on my hands, I've also been bored. I'd like to have some more fun, and I need my accomplice to help with that. So you'll accept his generous offer, right?"

She opened her mouth to give him a response, but the sound of light footsteps racing up the stairs stopped her. Nanako excitedly stood outside of her room. "Big Sis! Come downstairs! We got the melon for you and we can't start until you've joined us!"

The protagonist smiled at Adachi for a second, then followed Nanako downstairs.

"Since it's going to rain soon, we'll just have to eat in the living room," Dojima explained, having already set up the smashed fruit on a towel in the center of the table.

"I helped smash it!" Nanako pointed out, sitting closely to the protagonist and waiting for her to take a piece.

She took a seat, politely waiting for Adachi to join them, as well.  
He was eyeing the treat impatiently.

The protagonist couldn't help but smile bashfully and take a chunk of the red fruit, biting into it, and she watched as the other three followed suit. Adachi didn't hesitate to take the biggest piece, and she was surprised that Dojima didn't scold him for it as he often did.  
Somehow, during the year she was gone, had Dojima just adjusted to his antics?  
It would make things easier in the long run…

Nanako began telling her about how she finally caught up at school when she could attend again a few months ago, and that she was happy to finally be able to leave the house every day to go learn.  
She and her father were spending more time together now, and she was happy to point out the drawings and colored pages on the fridge that they'd made into a family project. Her voice carried so much excitement at telling her big sis just how fun she'd had at Junes last week, because somehow a cat had gotten into the store and it let her pick it up.

The protagonist was relieved to learn that Dojima was spending more time with Nanako.  
Nothing like a near death experience to really tighten parental relationships.

When half of the melon was gone, and Dojima and Adachi had already opened a couple of beers, Nanako finally settled down and turned her attention to the muted TV.  
Had she actually run out of stories to tell?

"I suppose now is as good a time as ever to bring it up." Dojima said, sounding almost nervous.  
"About last year…you know, I really didn't approve of you getting involved with the murder case. Police work is dangerous for someone so young and small. But you're still here, thank god, and you and your friends actually were capable of catching the killer and succeeding where we police couldn't. I don't know if you're actually interested in ever going into the world of law enforcement, but I can pull some strings and get you an internship at the station for the summer if you're interested. You don't have to accept if it isn't something you want to do or you don't think it's right for you, but know that Nanako and I would love to have you around again."

"I think she'd make a great detective one day!" Adachi piped in. "She's got a good head on her shoulders, and the best judgement I've never seen in a teenager."

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I'd be honored.  
I'll think about it.  
[Do I get a badge?]

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Dojima laughed, pleased with her enthusiasm. "Sure! You'll get a badge…not an official one. But it'll state your position with the station."

Nanako clapped her hands together excitedly, turning her attention back to her. "I'm so glad! Big Sis! We'll get to spend all summer together! We can go to Junes, I can show you the new episodes of my favorite shows, and there's a new section at the library…"

Nanako continued to speak excitedly at the prospects of everything they could do together, eventually laying her head on the table over her arms and watching the TV with heavy, sleepy eyes. The protagonist leaned forward and sighed contently, hugging her knees and joining them in watching a local special about the animal shelter.  
That was something else she could do while she was here.  
She wondered if her cat friends were still here. She'd go to Junes later and buy some bowls and bags of kitty food.  
Dojima had turned his attention to the TV, as well, unmuting it now, and Adachi was texting on his phone, under the table and out of noticeable eyesight.

As she'd predicted, her phone vibrated in her jacket pocket, and she flipped it open to see what he had to say.

From: Adachi-san  
Message: Looks like you're all mine. Come to my house tonight at 11. We've got a lot to catch up on.

She closed her phone and smiled at him, nodding enthusiastically. She'd be there. Of course.  
He grinned at her for a few seconds, then propped his head on his hand and turned the other way.  
The protagonist let herself relax and enjoy the footage of cats chasing each other and rolling on the ground with toy mice, the news reporter speaking of how adoption rates have been encouragingly high as of late.

This would be the best summer of her life thus far, and she was looking forward to it.


	15. Leave them be - part 1

_I see…_

_Despite the fact that it would secure your own future, you will not take their experiences from them, out of the kindness of your heart. _

_Perhaps you will not be able to conceal the truth forever, but this town and this world is yours, and if you ever need me, I am always with you._

The world went black for a brief few seconds, as if the protagonist had fallen and hit her head, but before she could consciously process it, she realized that she was now standing at the train station. Izanami was nowhere to be seen, having fulfilled her promise to her fledgling and placed her in the result of her choices.

She was holding her bags, standing just outside the car while Dojima and Adachi were making small talk by the bulletin board and the investigation team was waving to her excitedly. Flipping her phone open, she realized that she had just a few more minutes until her train was scheduled to arrive.

Rubbing at her left temple and not wanting to think too much on her decisions, considering that she couldn't change them now, she closed the phone and put it away.

"Hey, Partner, you alright?" Yosuke asked her from the distance.

She felt embarrassed suddenly and nodded, approaching her friends with a small smile.  
They were huddled together, trying to keep their spirits up for the sake of a memorable sendoff for her, their leader and companion.  
She thought about how it was important that they try to remain friends with each other at the very least, even if she'd chosen a different path that would require her eventual separation from them.

Adachi wasn't fond of them. They either weren't good enough for her, or he was jealous, maybe both, and half of them had their own lives to get back to at the end of the school term.

One day they'd have to tell everyone, and even though it was potentially years from now she found herself trying to emulate how it'd go. They'd start with Dojima, and then if Adachi lived through the inevitable beating and lecture she'd tell her friends one by one that she'd found someone and was getting married. If they were still in communication by then…

"Senpai," Naoto spoke quietly, not wanting anyone outside of the circle to hear him. "On behalf of all of us, I want to thank you for everything you've done for us. We wouldn't be here if not for you…"

"You've really helped us out," Kanji added. "Even though we couldn't really solve the case, I still feel like a new person."

"And we aren't giving up on Teddie, either." Yosuke was looking at the ground, resembling a wounded animal. Of course. Teddie's disappearance probably affected him the most…

"Honestly, leader, if not for you…" Chie shoved her hands in her pockets. "Yukiko and I might not be friends anymore. After…well, y'know."

"You've changed all of our lives for the better, Senpai." Rise placed a hand over her heart for emphasis. "It's like, wherever you go, you improve things. You've really inspired me, because I want to inspire people, too. I'm not so scared of going back to my idol career anymore. You'll surely come back to Inaba to visit, right?"

"Whenever you do, I'll reserve a room for you at the Amagi Inn," Yukiko offered. "Don't forget to stay in contact with us."

A harsh, cold wind blew from a distance, slapping them with a chill, and the drizzle picked up.

x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

I'm proud of you guys  
You're my best friends  
[We can all move on with our lives now]

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It'd be nice if they did, she thought, at least after finding Teddie.  
Not only for the sake of their own happiness, but because if they were still going to explore the TV world, there was always a slim chance that they could stumble upon Adachi on any given day he was bored enough to be there.

She didn't doubt that Adachi would hurt them.

"Yeah," Yosuke agreed reluctantly. "I'm kind of done with this whole thing. The TV world, I mean. Teddie is the only reason I have to go back now, and after that, I'm not going back anymore."

"It's far too dangerous without your abilities to explore the TV world," Naoto agreed. "But I for one cannot simply move on, even after I've left Inaba. I have a reputation to uphold as a detective. I'll never truly stop trying to solve this case…it's not something I can simply forget about and cease my thoughts on."

"Naoto-kun…" Yukiko sounded disheartened. "You know, we'll always be willing to help you."

"Yeah!" Chie clenched her fist. "Even with Leader gone, we'll always keep our eyes and ears open."

"I'm not really that great with mysteries and stuff," Kanji admitted, scratching his neck. "But I'm always willing to kick some shadow ass for any of you."

"Hey, Naoto-kun has a point!" Yosuke's eyes suddenly gained a spark of life that hadn't been there previously. "Partner, I have an idea! Why don't you appoint Naoto-kun as a temporary leader over the investigation team while you're gone? We still have the rest of the term to be in school together, after all."

"I highly doubt that I qualify to lead," Naoto was suddenly bashful, a hint of a blush creeping onto his face at having everyone's attention. "And I won't ask any of you to put yourself at risk. I can't accept such a generous offer, but thank you."

"I wouldn't care to still try as long as I'm here," Rise pointed out.

"Me, either!" Chie looked to Yukiko, who nodded in agreement.

The team turned to their leader.

_This could be bad._

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We can't dwell on this forever…  
Just….be safe  
[It's up to you]

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Yosuke actually smiled; he was feeling better now, suddenly inspired. "Of course we'll always still be thinking about the case, but it'd feel better to get your official approval, you know?"

"Like I said," Naoto spoke bashfully. "I'm not comfortable being appointed leader over such a dangerous task. I'll continue investigating in my own way."

The sound of the train roaring in the distance interrupted them, and she suddenly realized that she'd spent so much time talking to the team and trying to assure that they dropped the idea of ever solving the case that she hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Adachi yet.

She turned to look back at them. Adachi didn't look too amused, listening to Dojima with a serious face.

"You should say bye to your uncle and Adachi-san," Yukiko pointed out, as if reading the saddened look on her face. "Adachi-san really helped us out all he could, and Dojima-san has had a rough year past few months, too."

The protagonist felt a twinge of relief at feeling free to break away from them long enough to say goodbye to Adachi, and hurriedly went to them across the station to say a final goodbye as the train chugging in the distance grew closer.

She shyly smiled up at them, although she was really just beaming up at Adachi, suddenly proud of herself for throwing her friends off as much as she could and discouraging them from trying to cause him any trouble in the future.

"Really, waiting to the last minute to say goodbye to your uncle, that's kinda rude!" Adachi playfully scolded her.

"And what do you know about manners?" Dojima was trying not to laugh. "It's fine, we said our goodbyes earlier."

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[I wanted to say bye to Adachi-san]  
Thank you for having me!

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"To me?" Adachi blinked innocently, as if he had no idea why in the world his boss's niece would be so keen on formally telling him goodbye. "Well, I really appreciate the thought! You're a good kid, and I hope you'll come back to Inaba to visit really soon. Dojima-san is always bragging about how much you help him out, and Nanako-chan really looks up to you."

The Earth rumbled with the weight of the locomotive fast approaching, and in a matter of seconds it had pulled into the station, coming to a slow halt by the platform.

She steadied her bag on her shoulder and shyly waved to them as the doors hissed open and waited for her.

The team saw her to the train, Rise and Yosuke looking like they might cry, and she quietly bid them all farewell and promised to keep in touch. She intended to keep that promise. Somehow. For as long as she could.  
It didn't seem real that she was leaving, and that in a matter of hours she would be back to the place she'd called home before.

As she gazed out at the foggy countryside from the window, forehead pressed to the glass, the city began sounding a little less dreadful. She did miss the fancy gachas and constant, twenty-four hour access to almost anything.

She didn't miss the constant noise, though, or how the sky was too polluted with light to see the stars—Inaba had spoiled her with quiet nights full of cicadas, lightning bugs, and bright starry nights.

She'd miss Inaba. A lot. And she already wished that she could return, but it would just be a year, right?  
Living in the city her entire life, surely she could manage just a fraction more.

With a heavy sigh, the protagonist retrieved her phone from her bag and browsed through her gallery of photos from Inaba entering her password for one particular file—the picture she'd taken of Adachi resting on his table, exhausted from work the night she cooked for him so many months back.

No sooner had she started at it long enough to let her eyes well up (there weren't any other passengers in her cabin, so it'd be okay to cry now, right?), a text notification overtook her screen.

From: Adachi-san  
Message: Have a safe trip back.

She wiped her eyes in sudden embarrassment and text him back with a genuine smile on her face.

_Thank you 3_


End file.
